The recent “drones over racecourses” controversy has, in the view of a punters’ representative, called attention to a longstanding truth, that those who bet in-running are on anything but a level playing field. Martin Hughes, who serves on the Horserace Bettors Forum, believes racing is missing out on “a fantastic opportunity” by allowing that unfairness to persist and adds that 60% of respondents to an HBF survey, as yet unpublished, said they would be interested in betting during races if they could see the action at the same time as everyone else.
“I don’t think anything has really changed, with the drones,” Hughes told me this week. The reason for his interest in the HBF when it was set up in 2015 was that he had noticed a change in the in-running markets, and he has since gathered plenty of evidence of the cause of that change, people streaming pictures from the track to those who are prepared to pay.
“The drone is another way of people streaming from the track. I don’t have a massive issue with that on top because if you stop the drone, they’ll do it by some other method. They’re very clever, these people, they seem to come up with a new method every six months or so.”
Hughes has raised his concerns with various powerful people in racing. “They all say, ‘This is terrible,’ but then do nothing about it.” Experienced bettors are aware that their TV pictures can be as much as seven seconds behind the live action, depending on the channel, but Hughes worries that newcomers could lose their money before realising the disadvantage they’re up against.
“I just feel that racing is missing a trick by not having a faster picture service. That’s what I would love to see racing working towards. It’s perfectly capable of getting an in-running product out.” He says the footage available through at least one betting site is less than one second behind live, proving that such a service is achievable.
An evangelist for in-running betting, Hughes argues that a healthy in-play market also fosters pre-race betting, as punters like to establish positions from which to trade when the race starts. “My average bet used to be £20, before I started on in-running. I was just looking through my records on Saturday and, before racing had started, I’ve spent £800 with the bookmakers. Not on Betfair or anything like that, with the bookmakers.”
Currently, the unequal playing field stops racing from giving in-running betting any kind of promotional push, even though it would generate interest in the sport and provide income through the levy on betting profits. Hughes’s view is that fast pictures for all could be an enormous boon to racing and help to get the attention of a technologically savvy younger generation.
Minella Rocco to return in Cotswold Chase
All is not yet lost for Minella Rocco but his career as a steeplechaser is on a knife-edge as he returns to action in today’s Cotswold Chase, his first run since he fell in the Irish Gold Cup almost a year ago. “I just hope that everything goes right,” was the word from his cautious trainer, Jonjo O’Neill, yesterday.
It is only four years since Minella Rocco was the great hope for the future at Jackdaws Castle, O’Neill’s Gloucestershire base. AP McCoy had just announced his retirement when he rode the horse to win at Newbury in 2015, a success so impressive that O’Neill was asked by reporters: “Who’s going to be riding this when he turns up in the Gold Cup two years from now?”
O’Neill laughed it off but the horse did indeed make the line-up in 2017, running on powerfully but not quite fast enough to catch Sizing John. Since then, Minella Rocco appears to have succumbed to Big Horse Syndrome; there have been so many issues to deal with that O’Neill, speaking between races at Huntingdon on Friday, could not immediately recall which particular problem sidelined his star in the autumn.
There has been a wind operation since he last ran. “He’s had a few of those,” the trainer says. “But he’s back fine now. I’m delighted with him at home, very pleased, he’s schooled well, he’s in great form, he’s as well as I’ve ever had him. But it’s easy to say that. It’s not the same when you’re on a racecourse.
Is it reasonable of us to hope that we can, at some point, see the same Minella Rocco who was second in a Gold Cup? “I don’t think so,” O’Neill sighs. “He’s had a few issues and not much racing since then. Listen, I’d be delighted if he did. I’d be delighted if he performed at three-quarters of the way he used to be.
“I’ll know a lot more after this and hopefully we’ll get another run into him and then we’ll see where we are. He’s in the Gold Cup … but there’s no point in talking about these things until he goes tomorrow. We might be saying he’s retired or we’re back in action.”
