An Analogy of the Racing Industry
This article was posted during a discussion of why free historical racing data (ie old form) was removed from various sites
An Analogy of the Racing Industry
Consider horse racing as a product (anathema to lovers of the sport, but necessary for purposes of illustration):
Owners and by extension trainers, jockeys and breeders are the suppliers.
The principal racing authorities/race clubs are the wholesalers.
Betting agencies are the retailers.
Punters are the consumers.
A number of issues now become evident:
1. the wholesalers bear a responsibility to ensure that suppliers fully disclose the condition and specifications of their goods and that this information is made available to retailers and consumers, which clearly makes all data from barrier trials (official and unofficial), trackwork and racemeetings conducted under the auspices of the raceclubs subject to full disclosure.
2. levying a fee for the provision of said data is akin to charging consumers to view advertising material relating to product specifications. "come and buy my product, but first you'll have to pay to inspect it!" wholesalers/retailers in the wider world have little difficulty in understanding that recouping the expense of promotion occurs at the point of sale.
3. wholesalers may well seek the opinions of suppliers, but ultimately need to survey consumers to determine the type of product end users wish to purchase. Therefore the type of racing offered and the conditions under which it is conducted (ie race programming) must be a function of consumer demand.
If consumers want energy efficient goods, bleating suppliers with an unsuitable product will be ignored. Likewise, if punters want open betting races comprising competitive participants (3yos) with low retention rates (markups) then they presumably would vote with their pocket and owners/trainers marshalled to supply the desired product, with complaints about handicapping and programming relegated to the lowly perspective of suppliers' concerns, whilst retailers prepared to operate on low margins could be encouraged and certainly not stifled by protectionism.
Commissions from Betting agencies back to the industry need to be a function of retention rates.
4. form analysts (of which I am one) and organisations who add value to racing data clearly fit the role of product reviewer. Their analyses may be paid for by consumers or retailers, but consumers are entitled to provision of raw data (product specs) to make their own purchasing decisions at no cost to them.
I invite ausracers to expand and/or contradict the analogy I have outlined.
Marc Lambourne
