All kinds of stuff about horse racing, yes, but also other stuff that we find interesting and which maybe you will, too.
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An upscale young entrepreneurs club with a link to equestrian sports, Formula 1 and horse racing?
We like it- a young entrepreneurs club built around the speed and glamour of Formula One, horse racing ownership plus equestrian sports and positioned as an upmarket meeting place for the new game changers of the world.
We like it even more as some very close to us are involved and who see this as a franchise- an entertainment driven restaurant/club in various locations around the world including Dubai, London and Tokyo with no old school stuffiness, Robin Leach pretentiousness and cheap socks and gimmicks. Sorry, Pete.
There are enough of those Members Only racing clubs littered around the world and going nowhere in an upside down 2022 where it’s all about change.
As that one-time popular hashtag said about things a couple of years ago, #timesup.
New priorities have come into play and staying only with that old gambling albatross is not exactly inviting and nor is it going to open up new doors of opportunities for growth.
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Turning Japanese-AH!
It’s a quirky short-form video in Japanese that’s been making the rounds recently featuring Champion riders Christophe Lemaire and the legendary Yutaka Take who has broken the time and age barrier.
With some of us having lived and worked in Japan in the entertainment industry, the technique is never the idea when it comes to most television commercials.
It’s all about randomness and something that only works in Japan.
This form of communications was born in Japan much like anime, J-Pop, Hello Kitty, Pikachu and other huge amounts of cuteness embraced by men and especially girls.
One guesses the appeal here is the extremely popular Christophe Lemaire interacting with local racing fans and speaking letter perfect Japanese.
With the ageless Take in the same commercial, the result is a double whammy.
Here’s hoping that no other racing jurisdiction tries to copy its zaniness. It won’t work.
This leads to the question as to when the advertising of horse racing everywhere else in the world, just like the formulaic presentation of the racing product with three wobble heads handing out numbers, paddock parade experts, yawnfest presentation ceremonies etc etc, will change with the times?
After all, the Eighties were over forty years ago.
Surely it’s time to produce something different compared to the usual pastiche of early morning track work shots, closeups of goggles and gloves, the eye of a horse, barriers opening, the “excitement” of the race, and then the obligatory slo-mo victory shot?
Nodded off? We have.
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Short cuts
It’s a given that Blake Shinn will continue his riding career once he returns to Australia after deciding that despite coming into his own in Hong Kong, living in the city’s suffocating “racing bubble” was too much for him to take. He’s not going to be the last one.
Watching some of his winning rides, especially during this, his breakout season in Hong Kong, and even those races where his runners placed, especially in the staying races, one couldn’t help but be impressed by the experience and guile of Blake Shinn.
The question is where Shinn will make his base back in Australia? If NSW, there’s gonna be a helluva wealth of riding talent down there, especially with the recent addition of William Pike to the riding ranks.
And if the somewhat intense and pretty enigmatic rider delivers the type of performance seen when he guided the David Hayes runner Kai Xin Dragon to victory at Shatin on Sunday, he’s gonna be the force he’s always been when riding Down Under.