THE RACING AUDIENCE

The key spectator profile
Dubbed the “Sport of Kings”, racing has an extraordinarily diverse audience crossing gender, age and socio-demographic boundaries with ease. The sport appeals to all ages, social classes and a high proportion of women.

In fact, from a commercial perspective, the diversity of the event and broadcast audience means that racing can offer the broadest appeal from its primarily ABC1 event audience, to its C2DE television audience.

Sport is generally perceived to be a male preserve, the refuge of the family’s breadwinner each Saturday afternoon. Yet Jump racing transcends this gender divide. Whilst the event audience is around 65% male, the growing incidence of Ladies Days, and the inclusion of additional entertainment through music or entertainers, has built a solid female loyalty to the sport, underpinned by a near 50% audience share by women watching racing on television.

Up to 80% of the racing crowd is under 55, and 25% is under 25. On television, the socio-demographics mirror the population at large, with over 50% of the audience over 55. However, the successful Morning Line preview of the afternoon’s racing, fronted by Channel 4’s racing presenters, has played a valuable role in bringing the sport to a younger audience, and viewing figures among the younger age groups show a notable increase for the big events. This trend is duplicated among the younger age groups on the course, where the thrill of the big event adds to the occasion.

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The Racing Tribe
In 1997, an extraordinary study by Kate Fox, a director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford, concluded that racing “attracts a more representative sample of the population than almost any other spectator sport” (The Social Behaviour of Horsewatchers).

Over a 12 month period, Kate visited racecourses and spoke with spectators, owners, trainers, jockeys, stable staff, officials, journalists and racecourse staff. The results were later published in a fascinating account titled “The Racing Tribe”, published by Metro in 2002.
The report concentrated on the behavioural profile of the racing crowd, with some compelling findings. For example, in most public contexts, strangers actively avoid making eye contact. At the races, complete strangers frequently make eye contact and smile at each other for no apparent reason. At the races, the British shed their customary reserve and inhibitions to the extent that initiating friendly conversation with total strangers becomes socially acceptable.
Hordes of young males congregate, drink large quantities of alcohol and gamble in an exciting context with plenty of opportunities for aggression. Yet there is no violence or vandalism: in fact, they rarely cause any trouble at all. The bomb-scare evacuation at the 1997 Grand National illustrated that the cheerfulness, sociability and solidarity of the racing crowd is unshakeable even in the most testing conditions.
And racing is the last bastion of old-fashioned chivalry: female racegoers indulge in highly exhibitionist dressing, yet they are invariably treated as 'ladies', with courtesy and respect.
The Cheltenham Festival is an England vs. Ireland match. Yet after a day without an Irish winner, the English contingent start to fret, hoping that their rivals would soon 'score', so that everyone can celebrate.
The research concluded that racing is unlike other spectator sports in that all of the sporting action is short-lived, interspersed with half-hour intervals with no activity at all on the track, allowing far more opportunities for social interaction than any other spectator sport. The exceptional sociability of racing crowds is also an effect of what social psychologists call 'behavioural contagion'. In short, smiling is infectious.
It could be argued that racing holds at best an ambiguous moral status in a world dominated by regulation and reminders of what you cannot do. The findings concluded that racing offers an escape from the norms and restrictions of normal life – the ultimate escapism, where conventional social rules are relaxed. This so-called “time-out” factor is one of the reasons that racing scores well as a hospitality opportunity.
Racing of course does not pit team against team, so lacks any partisan element like soccer or rugby. Rather the crowd bonds together through its collective risk-taking. For spectators betting, each is briefly an owner of the wagered horse, with an emotional tie, whilst for direct connections, or those for whom the draw of racing is not financially driven, the bond is made with the horse and jockey combination in hoping they complete the race together and successfully. The risk factor offers a collective adrenalin rush and accelerates a sense of solidarity.

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Who are the customers?
Owner A is an entrepreneur in his late 40’s, a director of a business in which he has an equity stake. He is married, with children, privately educated, owns his own home, and takes holidays abroad, or owns property abroad for that purpose. He drives a Range Rover, whilst his wife has an Audi Estate. He reads The Daily Telegraph and the FT.
His horse is a lifestyle hobby for him and his wife. He enjoys watching it race at the bigger courses as often as he can, visits the stable when time allows, but often misses his horse race due to work commitments.

Owner B is a 52 year old school master in a private school, married with children. He is part of a syndicate, sharing the cost of several horses. For him, the involvement in live sport is compelling, and the social craic of the racecourse is a key driver. He drives a modest family vehicle and displays few obvious trappings of wealth. He reads The Times.

Spectator A goes racing about 6 times a year. He is 32, considers himself a professional and works in a service industry. He shops at Sainsbury’s, and has a Sky Sports subscription. He reads The Daily Mail and listens to BBC Five Live. His sporting hero is Muhammed Ali. His attendance pattern will include a day at the Cheltenham Festival, and he attends with a friend. He would attend more but for a shortage of time. The key elements of a successful day’s racing are the atmosphere, the quality of the sport, and being in the company of friends.

Spectator B is 27, and attends the races once a year in a group of 10 friends. He enjoys the big event atmosphere, and visits the Best Mate Enclosure at Cheltenham where drink and music add to the entertainment. He is local to the racecourse, has walked there, and will finish the afternoon in the pub reviewing the afternoon’s sport. He is internet savvy, watches Sky Sports, and reads The Sun.

Spectator C is 53, female and married. Her children are at university. She attends with her husband, who is a director in an SME. She runs her own small business from home, and has connections in the racing business. She reads the Daily Mail, and drives a Volkswagen Golf. She watches racing on TV and goes racing 10 times a year at her local racecourse, where she is an annual member with her husband.

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Racing on TV
Horseracing receives more terrestrial TV coverage than any other UK sport other than football. The biggest events remain classified as “Crown jewels”, meaning they must be transmitted on a terrestrial free-to-air channel.

Channel 4 has built up a significant equity in racing, with an identifiable style, presenters that have become household names, and an innovative approach to new technology to give the viewer a better insight into his sport. The wirecam, sectional timing and jockey-mounted camera are just some of the techniques deployed by the channel. With 2 hours broadcasting time every Saturday, and other major events mid week, like the Festival, the broadcaster has been a player in the development of the sport in recent years. With a regular Saturday audience of circa 1m viewers, its cumulative reach for Jumping alone each year is in excess of 46m viewers.

The BBC’s coverage of jumping is dominated by the build-up to the John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree. All the key trial races are covered, and Sue Barker presents the programme live from Aintree during the three days. Nearly 15.7m viewers watch the Aintree spectacular over the three days, including over 11m for Saturday alone – racing’s largest audience throughout the entire year. The cumulative reach for coverage of Jumping is circa 30m from a considerably smaller inventory of coverage.

Critically, around 69% of the UK population will watch racing on television at least once during the year. Whilst the audience is nearly two-thirds male, there is a significant stay-at-home female audience loyal to racing, and to Jump racing in particular. Again, the socio-demographics mirror the population at large, with two thirds over 55, and the same number from the C2DE bracket.

In short, Jump racing has the ability to appeal to virtually the entire age and socio-demographic profile of the UK at large, through an up-market event audience, and a loyal mid and lower market TV audience.

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