Lessons For Racing From The Hussar

This may appear a little off the radar but consider this ;

In Cape Town we have a restaurant group called The Hussar.

It started off as a single outlet in the late 1960's as a 'steakhouse type' eatery. It has been through its ups and downs but has recently been invigorated and now boasts a couple of brances ( franchises perhaps? ) dotted throughout the peninsula.

Its not cheap but the food is good and it possibly represents one of the best options to consider if you are a meat eater.

So why has this relative dinosaur returned to popularity when it was such an unappealing and forgotten destination for so long?

The answer is in the detail : It never totally lost its reputation for making a good steak. But its decor and attitude was tired and stale. Money ( obviously! ) and energy was committed to freshening it up. The standard of the service was improved ( probably through training ). But the killer USP ( unique selling point for the uninitiated ) is in the following :

The restaurant DOES NOT CHARGE CORKAGE. So if you fancy a really good meal but baulk at the 200%+ markup on a bottle of wine you can bring your own. They welcome it. Their stated approach is that they are in the business to provide good food. They actually do have a comprehensive wine list ( just like any other restaurant ) and do a roaring trade off it to anyone who could not be bothered to bring their own/run out during the course of the meal/ did not know they could bring their own. To say nothing of spirits, beers and softdrinks where nobody expects to be allowed to provide their own.

Simply put - they focus on their core function.

You have to wonder how many people they attract simply because of that feature and then HOLD ON TO THEM because their core offering is excellent.

How does racing's 'core offering' compare in comparison ?

We are lead by a CEO who proudly stated when appointed that he 'knew nothing about racing'. Good start.

We now boast industrial strength breeders who may as well be in the food supply chain given the methods being employed ; The chances are that the next yearling you buy will have been pumped full of growth hormones and steroids and ripened under sun lamps pre sale.

We have a veterinary industry happy to pander to the above. Some say they actively encourage the practices. And they are are a constant presence in the yards with their painkillers, anti-inflammatories, steroids and the rest as required.

We have a general public totally disinterested in the product because the general consensus is that it is crooked. Certainly our 'police force' has been remarkably sluggish and inept in recent times.

Despite all of the above we have a dominant operator who holds a virtual monopoly over how the sport is run and still cannot make it work. For the umpteenth time the bookmaking fraternity is under attack for not making enough of a contribution. Yet no self-examination takes place - bookmakers prospser because they offer products which punters want! Duh.

If they want to take a stab at seeing how well the bookmaking model would survive using the same confiscatory percentages employed by the tote why not start off with Betting World? They own it and could use it as a guinea pig in their mad science theories.

They have already successfully ( sic ) blocked the entry of betting exchanges into the market to date. Whilst completely overlooking the fact that they would probably bring an altogether different punter into the game.

Racing does not have a good record with regard to innovation. Younger people might find this hard to believe but Robert Bloomberg and I came close to being ejected from the 1996 Durban July for daring to use cellphones on course!!

Racing clings to a business model which is now outdated. It continually revisits the same old corpse for more revenue when even the jackals are looking elsewhere. Rugby, Soccer & Cricket do not rely on betting revenue for survival. They are sufficiently attractive to SPONSORSHIP and have huge television audiences who want to see their product. Racing? 'Nah.........isn't that just a crook sport?' is the standard response.

It's not as if the operators don't know what is wrong - it's all over the forums e-v-e-r-y single week.

If The Hussar can get its core business back to profitability then racing could boost its betting turnover by FIRST making the sport ethical, attractive and palatable to people who would not presently be won over.

Failing that you can expect the following shortly from Alice In Wonderland : We think the caterers are making too small a contribution to our business.......................!

Another classic Garrick txs

super points and truths there Garrick - glad to hear the Hussar is doing ok - love the steaks there!
I cannot work out how the operators, who have the chicken in hand, albeit numerous suggestions behind closed doors of years past, and in the last 5 years, in the open press, CANNOT see what they need to do and act on it. Oh, wait, using the wrong word there, should be WILL NOT see.

We could've been so much farther down the road 10 years ago already, its not like the ideas and sense wasn't being presented then already. Where to from here then - mass picket??? (we are back at this point again). Is the gov going to do independent study into the strategic future of racing or are they just going to go Simon says, Simon does with RdP?

As long as racing continues to be an "insiders' game" it is never going to come out of the Dark Ages.

What keeps it from being able to penetrate the public consciousness at this time is the feeling that the participantas are using the public's money for their own ends. It is exactly the same problem the stock market has with certain investors. Insiders using the public's money is a bad game to market.

Bookies aid and abet (so to speak) the process and contribute to the "insiders' game" notion that racing is rigged. They are involved in gaining inside information so that they know how to price up their horses. Insider trading on Wall St. can get you sent to jail for many years. In racing, however, pedding inside information is considered part and parcel of the sport.

I know you punters are used to betting with bookies and are likely to go down with the ship using them, but in North America and France the tote is the machine that handles betting on horses.

On the tote money cannot be hidden.

Racing cannot thrive if it caters to the few, it has to reach out to the masses. Part of the cleansing process and upgrading of standards involves evolving from betting with bookies to embracing the tote.

Racing should strive to present a level playing field for punters as well as horses.

Things that would improve the image of racing include replacing bookmakers with a mandatory tote, adding sectional timing to all races by employing of a bar code system used in Asia, use of Trakus so that newcomers can more easily follow their horses in a race, workouts timed by paid clockers, promotion of Sporting Post and elimination of handicapping and news products produced by a racing association (Phumelela), all of which would foster the idea of an independently run sport that would give the AVERAGE racegoer or punter a chance to win and feel that the game is on the up and up, rather than a card game played by a dozen slick looking guys wearing eyeshades and smoking cigars in a small room somewhere.

Well put Garrick.

Been reading a bit about TRAKUS