Presentation to the Darley Flying Start Conference at Keadeen Hotel, Newbridge, Ireland
October 25th 2006
Eden Harrington
Irish Racing Journalism A Comparison with Australia
Introduction:
Joe Janiak left his cab back in Queanbeyan to venture to Royal Ascot earlier this year. Joe is a horse trainer and all he brought with him was his son, a jockey and an €800 horse called Takeover Target. Joe had already become a household name in Australia before the King’s Stand Stakes triumph. Almost everyone knows Joe is a part-time cabbie who loves training horses. That he lives in a caravan just off the Queanbeyan racecourse with his two sons. And that despite being a battler he’d turned down Aus$1 million to have an adventure with his one good horse.
Joe is a story that is as fresh and likeable as you’re ever going to see. Even more so when he doesn’t really want to wear a top hat at Royal Ascot. He’s a knockabout, he’s three dimensional, he’s that commodity that rarely gets publicized in Ireland but is sought with zeal in Australia. Joe exemplifies an intrinsic difference between the journalistic cultures of Ireland and Australia and as such he is a nice opening to this talk on Irish Racing Journalism: A Comparison with Australia.
I will get back to Joe and others like him a little later but what I want to do this afternoon is not only point out the core similarities and differences between industries in these two countries but to explain why these differences occur. To do that we need to look at:
- the racing cultures of Ireland and Australia
- the journalistic cultures
- the financial assistance that is provided to some Australian papers and its impact
- the differing views on what is competitive journalism and what is invasive journalism
So when comparing journalism between Ireland and Australia what are we talking about? Journalism is the print media, specifically the daily newspapers and trade publications. In Ireland there are numerous local papers and publications but the primary source of information on horse racing comes from The Irish Independent, The Irish Times, The Irish Sun, The Irish Daily Star, the Irish Field and the Sunday affiliates to the daily papers.
The well read industry bible, The Racing Post, may be widely sold in Ireland but is a distinctly English production despite the over reliance on it. Australia’s foremost dailies include The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Courier Mail and The Advertiser. The primary trade newspaper, or Irish Field equivalent, is called The Sportsman.
Culture of racing:
The culture of racing goes a long way to dictating the type of journalistic coverage it is given. So how is racing in Ireland perceived? Horses and Ireland go hand in hand. It’s a fact well voiced already today. But for all of this horse racing doesn’t quicken the pulse in the way you would assume. Flat Racing is still the domain of the elite. For all the benefits Sheikh Mohammed, John Magnier and the Aga Khan bring to Ireland they also perpetuate this stereotype and for good reason. They are mega rich, they own the cream of the racehorses and they are the dominant players at the top end where media interest is strongest.
Like Ireland, Australia has its own mega rich who play in racing. There are always people needed to build the core of the industry. But what is different is that racehorse ownership in Australia appears to be more accessible and when coupled with an image that is sexy, sleek, social and sophisticated that appearance of elitism is watered down. It all results in a greater interest in the day to day news of racing.
In comparison the domain of the common man in Ireland is National Hunt Racing while the most accessible area of involvement is the leisure horse industry. The Irish Field has broadened its outlook in recent years from Flat and National Hunt Racing and tapped into the leisure horse industry. Its deputy editor, Mark Costello, is adamant it is the reason why the Irish Field is bucking a global trend and actually increasing its newspaper circulation. What it means is that when people turn to the major sources of racing information in Ireland they find that editorial space is shared between Flat Racing, National Hunt Racing, race fields and the leisure horse industry. This is unheard of in my part of the world.
The leisure horse industry isn’t as prominent and National Hunt Racing is no more than a fleeting distraction over two or three winter months while the real stars recuperate for the spring. It may seem an arrogant view but the result is that the focus on Flat Racing, for better or worse, is unwavering.
Journalistic culture:
In Australian racing journalism there is a culture of making and chasing personalities. Of hunting down the stories of the owner, the breeder, the trainer, the strapper, the bookmaker and the punter and seeing if there is a diamond in the rough. Why? Because as my first editor, Col Allen, drilled into me, “racing is about people, not horses”. It is the people that take racing from a two dimensional, punting industry to a peerlessly colourful sport. They make racing a more approachable and entertaining marketplace. They help foster interest in quarters where there was none previously and they keep the sporting public buzzing. This is why the Joe Janiaks of the world are so important.
Joe isn’t the first character racing has seen and he won’t be the last. In Australian circles he walks in the footsteps of the ever quotable Bart Cummings; of Australian racing’s First Lady Gai Waterhouse; of the ever outspoken and irrepressible jockey Shane Dye; of the late Vic Rail who survived almost solely on meat pies and trained the freakish front-runner Vo Rogue without shoes on a bitumen surface; and of the squeaky voiced Tommy Smith who courted the media with outlandish predictions and then delivered like no other. These are real people with real lives and when telling their story you are entertaining as well as informing. This same ethos of entertaining readers with personality stories doesn’t seem to be shared north of the equator.
Ireland, for all its equine riches, doesn’t seem to have a Joe Janiak. Yes, you have headline acts in Dermot and Kieran but where are the new personalities following them? The Irish Independent’s Damien McElroy admits coverage of Flat Racing in Ireland is more structured to race previews and reviews and not to the searching out of characters. I’d argue it is all the poorer for it. There is no doubt the dominance of Sheikh Mohammed, Coolmore, Dermot Weld, John Oxx and Jim Bolger can limit creativity in many ways, but there are also those within the Irish racing media who argue there is a lack of competitive journalistic hunger. And if that hunger is there then it is being blunted by the disinterest of the respective sports editors and that is equally as damning.
In many respects the divide between Flat Racing and National Hunt Racing has led to a divide in journalistic approaches. Coverage of Flat Racing makes the sport seem regimented and often colourless. National Hunt Racing, by contrast, is raw, it has life and personalities and plays to the interests of the common man. “The Irish psyche is jumps racing,” Damien McElroy said. “Our local heroes from over the years have come from here and this is when you will see more stories about characters. What we look forward to most over here isn’t flat racing but Cheltenham.”
Financial assistance:
The landscape of Australian racing journalism has changed tremendously in the last five or six years and the reason for this massive upsurge in support has been the financial assistance provided to the nation’s dominant daily and Sunday publications by TABs or Tote equivalents. Multi-million dollar contracts between TABs and newspapers have seen racing become arguably the most well covered sport daily on a national basis even if it isn’t regarded as the country’s premier sport. How great is this financial assistance? Exact figures can’t be released because of contractual arrangements, however Sydney’s Daily Telegraph is provided with an annual income of about €1.5 million to keep racing and, more particularly, punting interest bubbling. This money guarantees twenty tabloid pages of editorial space a week as well as detailed daily form guides.
A similar contract exists with Melbourne’s Herald Sun, a sister paper to The Daily Telegraph. Brisbane’s Courier Mail and Adelaide’s Advertiser have much smaller circulations and the contracts they hold with the TABs vary accordingly. These contracts have forced opposition publications to raise the bar. Additional space has fostered competition. Compare that level of reporting to what might be found in The Irish Times or the Irish Independent? What about The Irish Daily Star or Irish Sun who are reduced to tipping columns above race fields? The Irish Independent’s Damien McElroy said that “racing is begrudgingly accepted now because it’s the sport we have the most international success at”. But outside those fleeting international meetings racing journalists have to fight an uphill battle for space. McElroy said The Irish Independent’s chosen slant on race coverage is now almost exclusively restricted to race previews. It is a stance that is unfortunately becoming more common place, especially with the increased number of race cards run in newspapers eating into editorial space.
This problem of limited editorial space is exacerbated by the increased or ongoing popularity of other sports such as the GAA, golf, rugby and the English premier league. This smothering of opportunities has often led to stale reporting and an industry reliance on the Racing Post for hard news stories. Racing in Australia also finds itself shuffled down the pecking order of national sports, but the safety net it has is that the biggest selling dailies in four of six states are guaranteed editorial space. And while racing interest is fostered under this model the extent of the coverage has an Achilles Heal. Quantity can overrule quality at times.
Horse racing doesn’t deserve a minimum blank tabloid page of space 365 days a year. It means that at times the filter is assessing what is credible news and what isn’t is left behind. Weak stories with limited value can gain publicity. Stories can ramble to fill additional space. And worst of all some can turn to creative story telling in the chase for a headline.
Competition or invasion:
Bart Sinclair, one of Australia’s most respected and senior racing journalists, works for the Courier Mail in Queensland. He’s plied his trade for 37 years. Bart said he has never seen Australian racing journalism as competitive as it is right now. He said: “I believe the increase in electronic media has meant day to day news is being knocked off before the papers can get on the street. So print media people have to look at other angles for stories and sometimes they have to give an opinion, good or bad, on issues.” But a strong media support base isn’t the only factor exacerbating the competitiveness of Australian racing journalism. The additional space provided by TAB contracts has meant expectations are higher. It means that every day journalists need to work contacts harder, make more phone calls and push themselves to ensure the coverage of racing justifies the space it is provided. In some it can build an ethos of ruthlessness. But in my experience it led to competitiveness, hunger and pride at being first to a story.
Back home that level of competition is usually regarded as healthy and important. It ensures that no one, be they one of racing’s powerbrokers, its brightest star or an unheralded battler, is beyond public scrutiny or praise. This strong approach to journalism isn’t seen or welcomed, it seems in Ireland. Through Australian eyes it seems that there is a fear of upsetting the sport’s power players and potentially being black listed for doing so. The Racing Post’s James Willoughby said he knows of journalists in his country who have buckled under such pressure and refuse to ever bring to light the mistakes of leading figures. And while Willoughby said he didn’t know the Irish industry well enough to comment on it, it isn’t unrealistic to imagine such pressures would be felt by journalists in Ireland. After all it is a smaller racing centre that is home to global racing powers. Conceding to these industry players is bad journalism. Praise alone is as detrimental as complete negativity.
The Irish Independent’s Damien McElroy admitted there isn’t the same level of investigative journalism in Ireland because “there is more sensitivity here”.
Compare his view to that of Bart Sinclair’s earlier. McElroy said:
“People in Ireland recognise the contribution companies such as Coolmore have made. We aren’t dribbling over them but they are generally celebrated for their excellence.”
Click here for a complete list of Oct 2006 Keaden Hotel, Ireland assignments