- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
We’re right in the midst of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival now, so we were due this week for the most time-honoured of Victorian racing traditions – an article by some po-faced journalist bemoaning too many people treating the races as a social event and having a good time.
The shame of it all! How dare racing clubs attract people that want to enjoy themselves!
It was Matt Stewart’s turn this week, in Monday’s Herald Sun under the heading “Spring Racing Carnival: Too many races and too much booze is not a good look”.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Matty Stewart. He’s knowledgeable, and his commentary is colourful. He doesn’t mind openly potting a favourite, and loves putting a roughie on top. He’s a character reporting on a sport full of them.
Hence the disappointment at his position on Monday.
Whether Matt, and many others who share his view, like it or not, racing is not just a social sport, it’s the most social of sports. The reason is that the action to time ratio is lower than anywhere else.
If you added them all together, the 10 races at Caulfield on Saturday, from barriers to winning post, took about 16 minutes to run. That’s a lot of downtime in between races when the first is at 1pm and the last is at quarter past six.
Even if you took off a race at each end, and bring it back to eight races, as Matt suggests, you’re still looking at over four hours of attendance for 14 minutes of entertainment.
This isn’t the footy, where you’ve got two hours of action spread over two and a half. It isn’t cricket, where a ball is being bowled every 30-45 seconds, with a couple of breaks throughout the course of the day.
And what do a lot of people do at quarter-time and half-time of the footy? What do they do at lunch and tea of a Test match, or the mid-innings break at a one-dayer? They go and have a beer or two.
It’s only natural that people are going to do the same when they’ve got 35 minutes or more between races. I just didn’t realise that in order to be a racing fan I had to be a Mormon too.
I like having a beer at the races. Bloody oath I do. And I’ve been known to have more than one. I’ve also been known to have one too many, probably on one too many occasions.
Three of my mates and I have been members at the Melbourne Racing Club for the best part of a decade. We’re proud to be members of the best racing club in the land, renowned for its innovation and forward thinking. We love our racing as much as any four blokes around.
We love assessing the nominations and the weights early in the week. We love seeking out the acceptances the minute they’re posted. We love analysing the early markets, searching for ‘the overs’.
We love picking up Best Bets first thing Thursday morning. We love studying the form to work out a quaddie and a big six on a Friday night. We love catching up for a meal on a Saturday before the first.
Oh yeah, and we love a drink at the track too. Should we feel ashamed about this? Or should we be able to enjoy ourselves free from the judgement of the nearest curmudgeon?
This week, we’ll be bringing along four mates of ours to the Caulfield Cup. It’s become a bit of a tradition for us all. These guys are all non-punters, and could barely tell the difference between a horse head and tail, let alone differentiate between blinkers and winkers.
One of them just backs Kerrin McEvoy rides, for reasons unknown (and didn’t he love it when All The Good saluted at 40s in 2008!). One of them picks horses based on name alone. The other loves the idea of a really big score, so plays the trifectas and first fours.
Are these four, because they’re not racing purists and didn’t grow up with a form guide in their back pocket, not entitled to enjoy their time at Caulfield with a few drinks on a nice day?
I’ve known all these guys for a couple of decades at least. They’re never going to be racing fans in the way some people think the sport should be about, forgetting the punt, and appreciating equine athleticism. Take away the vibrant social atmosphere, and you’ll take them away too.
They want to have a flutter. They want to have a bet. They want to have a drink. They cheer for what they’ve backed, and it matters not to them whether it’s Black Caviar or something from the picnics.
Matt Stewart is also worried about how we look to the overseas racing world, which is an odd perspective, given how the international contingent of competitors grows every year.
We’re getting used to seeing the same international faces return, highlighted by Red Cadeaux trainer Ed Dunlop, and every season we welcome new ones. This year, there were at least a dozen new international trainers that nominated their horses for our big races for the first time.
Perhaps part of the lure is to enjoy the carnival atmosphere Down Under?
As a Victorian racing fan, this is the most exciting time of the year. Every day there is plenty to read, and every weekend there’s something major to look forward too.
The best horses in the country. The best trainers converging. The best jockeys taking each other on.
In the next three weeks, we’re going see new champions emerge and the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup get decided, among a handful of other Group 1s, and countless other black type affairs. The racing is at its absolute zenith, the excitement is palpable, and there is plenty of fun to be had, both socially, and on the punt.
Stewart may not want to, but you know what, I’ll raise a glass to that.