JOCKED OFF by new racing.com format!

The new studio based format for the racing.com race day presentation of Victorian racing is not sitting well with many industry participants (start with viewers or punters) but move swiftly to many of the stars of the game – the jockeys.

Live coverage is that in name only for non-metropolitan meetings with post-race winning interviews with trainer, their representatives or jockeys  recorded and played out later from the new AFL house studio after breathless stewards vision, alleged analysis (or the oft used word “insight”) or just a bit of fatuous babble.

It’s why the ever colourful Noel Callow, leader of the in-house racing.com Get On Mouawad medal – gave the industry broadcasters – who allowed him such a luxury over his normally not to be missed post-race “interviews’ – a wide berth at Geelong this week because he didn’t want to do post-race interviews any more.

And, who’s the loser? Racing of course.

This is not a hissy-fit. That’s not Callow – and he is not alone.

It’s an issue that was raised this week by the Victorian Jockeys Association CEO Matt Hyland at Epsom Road.

Callow would rightly point out with 30 minute gaps between races and a new rule from August 1 that jockeys must weigh out a race before – as the delayed interview (or being dragged out of the jockey’s room to suit the whim of racing.com or a Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP) cameraman –  is impacting on their professionalism and most importantly their preparation when they could have been interviewed live as per before).

Even the mid-week Ladbrokes Park Melbourne metropolitan was an ad-hoc mix of live and recorded while racing.com’s new and must be kissed and cuddled South Australian baby – this week Gawler  – squeezed as much post-race “live” to air then back to the winning jockey in Melbourne  on tape.

One wonders how racing.com will present the Caulfield black type heavy P B Lawrence Stakes meeting alongside Seymour and Morphettville this Saturday.

And racing.com may well say the format is evolving as it rolls out with the new content in its early days, but they should be well aware but this is a bubbling issue on so many fronts, not just fed-up jockeys.

The immediacy of the moment when you own the race and the rights has been dumbed down to mediocrity and the almost banal.

Some facts – the three-year bargaining agreement with jockeys in Victoria and the industry that result in their industry leading riding fees (matched finally in New South Wales this week) expires this year.

Victorian jockeys will say there was no consultation with them over the now new racing.com presentation planning.

Hence there should be no surprise when jockeys put their immediate jobs, professionalism and preparation first when the broadcaster wants them to jump through their own suitable hoops – pardon the pun.

When the jockey’s riding fee was established with consultation, it included a clause that they would do what was “fair and reasonable” in relation to being available for the then TVN broadcast.

It was written off against providing ‘free” trackwork or travel costs in doing so. Plus other matters unwritten.

As mentioned, this agreement expires this year and the mood of the meeting suggests racing.com needs to firstly consult or even find a long olive branch of respect to re-engage with jockeys who feel aggrieved with not just their new presentation policy and expectation of them, but jockeys are the sports stars (not them) and want to promote the industry.

Have racing.com shown one snippet of “Ride Guide”?

Just again if a race is scheduled for 1pm (runs 2 mins late if not on time), consider a jockey’s lot: they complete their job at 1.05 to 1.07 after debriefing his ‘employers’; get back to the jockey’s clubhouse to weight in then out, waste, eat, re-hydrate, sauna, watch replays of the race and a myriad of other things.

Then they are asked by racing.com at their leisure for an interview while they need to prepare for the next race at 1.30pm. Remembering, jockeys are called up at 1.15pm.

But let’s put that serious observation aside and observe the coverage itself now South Australian racing is piggy-backing off the boom of Victorian racing with its much touted massive growth in wagering.

Put jockeys aside for one short moment, there was a groundswell of negativity clearly from the audience (punters) as social media weighed in heavily on the aborted Victorian mounting yard and general overage this week as part of the “evolving’ new coverage.

Has anyone noticed the departure of the popular, knowledgeable and enthusiastic Sam Hyland also from the racing.com broadcast team?

racing.com CEO Andrew Catterall was quoted on the arrival of the new ‘content’ that is South Australian racing: “The challenge for Victorian Racing is to make the channel more relevant to more people, more often.”

“We want to attract punters from all states and territories to our freely available platform.

“Broadcasting South Australian racing is clearly an important outcome to attract South Australian viewers to our channel. As the premium product on the channel, Victorian racing clearly benefits from being more relevant to a larger audience.

“Since the launch of Racing.com, wagering on Victorian thoroughbred racing has grown by 18 per cent and has broken through the $6 billion per annum turnover mark for the first time for any state racing authority in Australia. “

Catterall also reinforced that the investment made by Racing.com to secure the South Australian thoroughbred rights from 2017 to 2024 was a well-considered strategic and commercial decision.

“It’s a pity that some media commentators continue to publish false assumptions about the commercial deal between Racing.com and TRSA, and don’t bother to ring us to fact check,” Catterall said.

“We clearly paid the market price given that the Tabcorp-owned Sky Channel matched our offer through their last-rights option in the auction process.”

RV CEO Giles Thompson will brief the media on Monday as to a bi-annual update on all things wagering and media about “the state of the state” and no doubt it will be all rosy.

There was little mention of racing.com in their partner Seven West media’s annual report this week.

The CEO Tim Worner, a racing man, may have suggested the battle for sports rights has reached a ‘tipping point” for not surprisingly the broadcaster could not pay any more, but there was no mention of the value of the racing media rights they now own.

Seven reported a $745 million loss for the full year due to a $989 million impairment. The impairment includes a write down of television assets and other intangibles and losses on investments.

Overall revenue was down 2.7 per cent to $1.6 billion in comparison to the previous year, which included the Rio Olympics

Worner was quoted as saying Seven would continue to cut costs at the same time as “investing in compelling content, including our long-standing associations with the Olympics, Australian Open Tennis and AFL”.

“These properties provide strategic relevance and increase our exposure to millions of viewers across free to air television and mobile devices,” he said.

But Seven West media refuses to release any numbers as to viewers to their racing coverage and investment.

The racing.com mantra is that the sport is now available to 95% of Australian home free to air ( via Channels 78 and 68) as well as pubs, clubs and phones but there is no accountability as to how many viewers (punters) are there.

But this week of course SA racing announced major prizemoney increases effective February 7 (up 12.7% of the 2014/15 budget) with Saturday races now with a benchmark $40,000 representing part of a total increase of $1.09m.

That’s terrific for SA racing and not all directly attributable to the $6m RV paid for their vision rights. But it helps.

But Victorian participants, led by their profile jockeys, aren’t happy with their treatment and expectations as racing.com changes their vision for presentation of vision which seems a bland palate of templated beige questions with a disconnect from the actual sport they have in their sadly non-creative hands led by TRP who would prefer not so show a live sport live.

Catterall wrote this off in racing.com’s defence this way:  “Our shareholders, Seven West Media and RVL, hold us accountable to getting a return on the investment on behalf of the industry.

Maybe the questioning needs to start. Jockeys already have. Spring is nigh and Winx runs Saturday. Heard of her?

By Bruce Clark