Healthy debates enliven Asian racing conference

The Asian racing conference began with the Chairman of the Indian Pattern Committee, Cyrus Madan, introducing a session on “Racing Media and the 21st Century Fan” on Wednesday.

He spoke of how horse racing needed media coverage and that the first electronic medium on which the public could enjoy the thrills of the sport was the radio. With audio-visual inputs, he explained how racing folk were progressively introduced to television and then the internet.

Others who spoke in the session were Debbie Spillane of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, who pointed out how Twitter was ideal for breaking news, and journalist Jim Ramsey, who contrasted horse racing, with its short bursts of action in between long pauses, with other sports.

Next up was a healthy debate on the Marketing of Racing. First out of the starting gate was Vivek Jain, Committee Member of the RWITC Ltd., who elaborated on how the club was developing sponsorships, with an average of one a week through the eight months of the year when racing was on.

It came as a pleasant surprise to learn that the club had managed to get sponsors to the tune of $15,000,000 in the current year.

He also spoke of Corporate Social Responsibility and other innovations in the marketing field.

Interesting presentations

Interesting presentations from Richard Cheung of the HKJC, Ben Heo of the KRA and Nick Addison of the V.R.C followed. One story, narrated by Dr. Eliot Forbes, was how Tasmanian racing had managed to increase turnover significantly, greatly assisted by an advanced technology product called Stride Master, which receives GPS inputs from the saddles of the participating horses, enabling detailed sectional times to be obtained. This provides invaluable additional information to punters.

The afternoon session on International Horse Movements, chaired by Dr. Brian Stewart of Racing Victoria, commenced with Dr. Farrokh Wadia, President of the National Horse Breeding Society of India, speaking on “Challenges and Opportunities for Indian Racing”.

He recounted the major landmarks in the history of the Indian Turf before listing some of the achievements – despite great odds – of Indian racehorses abroad.