Tom Marquand: racing shouldn't skip the basics when it comes to promotion

Leading jockey Tom Marquand has called on British racing to stop "skipping the basics" when it comes to promoting the sport and says it is everyone's responsibility to ensure the sport is marketed correctly.

Marquand, who sits third in the jockeys' championship and has landed Group 1 victories with Addeybb and Starman this year, says racing is often guilty of "overcomplicating" itself and should do more to focus on its equine stars and top-class athletes.

His comments follow those of Great British Racing's Rod Street on Tuesday, who said more needs to be done to retain the sport's casual audience.

The jockey said: "It might sound bad but I don't think we're going out of our way to promote racing for what racing is. We have a great product to sell that can appeal to many different types of people. Sometimes we maybe try to complicate things too much instead of concentrating on what racing actually has and the fact it's a good product to sell.

"We have top-class athletes in the horses, jockeys of varying and interesting character in the dressing room and the same with trainers. I'm not saying it doesn’t happen, but why not just work with what we've got?

"As with anything you start with the basics, and in some cases racing is guilty of skipping that and way overcomplicating things."

He added: "It's something that needs to be looked at and cared about by everyone because it's our sport, it's not one person's job to promote it. It should be everyone's priority to keep racing at the forefront of people's minds."

Rod Street: Great British Racing chief executive believes Tom Marquand to be one of many engaging young jockeys well-placed to help promote racingCredit: Edward Whitaker

Marquand was name dropped by Street as one of an emerging trend of social media-savvy young riders who can engage with a new generation of fans to drive interest in racing, and the Classic-winning rider is happy to take on such responsibility if it is to the benefit of racing.

"Some people are more willing to engage than others and that's fine. We need to use the people that do enjoy that to really drive the sport forward and maybe that doesn't happen as much as we'd like it.

"If you give people access to the top-end of our sport that can be key in getting people to care about it because we have such great horses, jockeys and trainers."

One of the problems facing Great British Racing in its aim to improve the experience of racegoers and create greater retention is a marketing budget of just £1.6 million, a comparatively low figure compared to some of Britain's most popular sports.

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Ladbrokes Coral PR director Simon Clare believes racing's main stakeholders should come together to form a centralised fund which would allow the sport to market itself to its fullest potential.

He said: "The big area racing has grappled with over the years and never nailed, largely due to the way the sport is structured, is the formation of a properly funded central marketing operation.

"It is amazing how many new customers come into the sport each year right now, as owners, racegoers and general fans, despite so little central advertising and promotion to attract them, so imagine what could be achieved with more than the current £1.6m that GBR has to play with.

"When you consider the huge amount of money that flows into racing and the importance of attracting new customers – especially owners – and retaining them, that figure is almost nothing.

"GBR do a good job with very limited resources and racing is a hugely successful sport, but could it grow and thrive with a properly funded centralised marketing and promotional arm?

"I suspect it could, but it would require a coordinated effort by all the main stakeholders in the sport."

Read more:

Racing must urgently reassess how it sells itself, warns sport's top marketeer

Chris Cook: 'It's completely mad' – what racing must change in order to boost its appeal

Emma Banks: 'Would I be happy to come back as a racehorse? I'm not sure I would' (Members' Club)

The sport must work harder to prioritise those who go racing to watch the racing (Members' Club)

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