Shane Anderson returned to host this week’s episode of bettingexpert’s racing podcast, Jump To It, as he was joined by tipster Stephen Harris and horse racing regular Ed Quigley, to breakdown how promotion in racing needs to evolve. 

Harris commenced by outlining his belief that ‘there needs to be a breakdown of midweek racing and Saturday racing, with the two attracting a very different audience. 

“Monday to Friday racing, you have got to look after race goers, whether they’re new fans or students and I think we need to advertise a lot better that kids go free – I don’t even think people know that, I’m sure more people would take their kids racing during half term and the school holidays if they knew it was free.”

He went on to highlight that the audio offering at race tracks needs to be improved, specifically magnifying the silver ring at Ascot as being a location where it’s almost impossible to hear the audio. 

Harris concluded by stating that ‘racing does an awful lot wrong and there’s a lot of people at the top of the sport that earn their salaries for not doing a great deal and I think a lot of things need to change’. 

Quigley built on this statement, by emphasising that a lot of the points being made by Harris wouldn’t require a lot of money to put right. 

He added: “I think there should be a lot more peacock feathers thrown at the top end of racing – people that get into racing are going to be sold into the sport by the top end tracks and if you like those then you will have a trickle down effect.”

He also detailed his belief that racing is breaking into the mainstream, as the sport should ‘puff its chest out a little more’ especially with an increasing number of characters that are savvy and cooperative with the media.