New docuseries crucial in fighting sport's 'existential crisis' says Racing League founder

ITV’s new primetime docuseries could be vital in fighting racing’s “massive existential crisis,” a key industry conference was told on Tuesday.

The six-part focus on jump racing, news of which was revealed in the Racing Post on Monday, was hailed as something that could help win back the sport’s “lost generations”.

Racing League founder Jeremy Wray, addressing delegates at the Horseracing Industry Conference at York racecourse, said: “I thought the most exciting headline I’ve seen in the Racing Post for a long, long time was the fact that ITV are putting on racing’s equivalent of Drive To Survive.

“The reason that’s exciting is that we are going to get the real chance to get the message across. ITV will do it brilliantly as a media partner who is engaged and pro-racing.

“And it was interesting that they said when ‘casting’ will start. They are not just going for the names that are at the top, what they’re going for is people who will get the story across, people who will engage. That’s exactly what we need. It’s really exciting that the programme will be the catalyst that brings people back in.”

Wray, who has a background in finance and is also a successful owner, set up the Racing League in an attempt to see racing’s appeal reach a wider audience and believes the sport’s human competitors are key to promotion.

Jeremy Wray: "We've got to find the next Frankie Dettori"

“We are facing a massive existential crisis,” he said. “We have dropped off the back page of the paper and we have lost two generations, millennials and Generation Z are not involved and we’ve got to find a way back. They relate to people not horses. We've got to promote this sport much more through people, not just the horses.

“We've got to find the next Frankie Dettori and some. What encourages me is we have those people, with the likes of Hollie Doyle, Saffie Osborne and Oisin Murphy. We need those people out there telling the story, we’ve got to put money into promoting them so that they bring those people back into the sport.”

The keynote speaker at a conference branded 'Modernising racing: how far and how fast?' was David Jones, the chair of the BHA commercial committee which was responsible for the industry strategy that produced the significant changes to the 2024 fixture list.

Jones stressed it was the product of collaboration rather than competition between different interests in racing and said: “My experience offers real hope for the future. When we first met last September there was a huge collective appetite to address challenges.”

The conference, which was attended by around 200 delegates from all sections of racing, also heard from Vikram Banerjee, the director of business operations at the England & Wales Cricket Board, who played a key role in setting the strategic direction for the sport.

Read these next:

British racing's Drive To Survive - ITV1 to air jump racing docuseries in primetime slot next year 

Racing's big opportunity: Jockey Club chief confident that 'primetime shop window' will drive new fans to the sport 

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