Willie Mullins: shorten the gaps between races to give racing 'a bit of a buzz'

Fixtures with gaps of 35 minutes between races run the risk of becoming a "boring" experience for racegoers, according to Willie Mullins, who called on courses to shorten intervals.

Meetings with breaks longer than 30 minutes between races have become increasingly common on Irish tracks in recent years, meaning fixtures – particularly with eight races – are more drawn out than they were previously.

Horse Racing Ireland statistics for the first six months of 2022 show attendances were down nine per cent compared with the same period in 2019 before the pandemic.

"Covid has been a challenge in terms of now trying to get people back into the habit of going racing," said Mullins.

"One thing I don't like about racing at the moment is 35-minute gaps between races. It's bad enough for jumps racing, but for the Flat it's worse.

"There are only so many cups of tea you can go for between races, and it makes the day long and unappealing to customers.

Galway festival: crowds were down 9.6 per cent this year compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"I think racing needs to sharpen itself up and have a bit of a buzz going there. I find that if I'm racing and have runners in the first and the last races, I'll probably just go for the last, as hanging around all day isn't what I want to do. I think it's the same for customers.

"It's different for festival racegoers who are there for a day out, but regular racegoers want to be entertained. They want racing at least every 30 minutes.

"I think racecourses need to see that it can be very long, and when things are long they get too boring."

Mullins also insisted the Irish racing industry must trust that sport's decision makers had made the right call by choosing Racing TV as Ireland's preferred broadcast provider until 2029.

Horse Racing Ireland's media rights committee announced on Tuesday that Sports Information Services and RMG were the preferred bidders in the battle for the sale of Irish horseracing's media rights from 2024 to 2028.

At The Races broadcast Irish racing until the end of 2018 and Sky Sports Racing were believed to be back in the race for the latest contract, but such a bid proved unsuccessful.

Kate Harrington and Gary O'Brien are part of Racing TV's Irish teamCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Mullins said: "HRI and the racecourses obviously think they've got the best option for racing, so they must have a lot more money coming back into the sport.

"When we look at racing we want to see it on regular television, and At The Races had a great show of live television that you didn't have to pay [a one-channel subscription] for. Racing TV is not like that, but I wonder how much of that is important?

"The income streams come from a lot of areas and from what I can gather, the actual percentage of people watching racing at home on their TV is a very small part of the whole [media rights] package.

"That's how it has been explained to me. Getting racing on terrestrial television and streaming on phones seems to be far more important."

He added: "I think both Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing have excellent products, and both have pluses and minuses. The people who run racing for us in Ireland have gone down this route, and I think as an industry we have to trust that they are right."

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