The sport of gallop racing in the media & some surprises
One knows this sentence only too well "the sport of gallop racing does not feature enough in the media". Again and again people complain that there is too little coverage of the Turf. Indeed, in times of the so dominating King Football, it is becoming more and more difficult to get space for our all favourite hobby in the daily newspapers. Everyone knows that racing is no longer a mass sport. Although it still attracts considerable numbers of spectators and in many cities is number two after football in terms of popular sport.
Newspaper mergers and, of course, the declining appeal of print media do the rest and make things more difficult. But especially in the online sector, there is always something to be discovered, although it is probably less the mere result of a race that is of interest, but rather the unusual all-round story. The federation has to deliver and feed the media with information. There will soon be another change of personnel on the press floor. One can only wish the new person a lot of neck and leg in this anything but easy task.
But there are always surprises, and we can be happy about them. For example, Antonia von der Recke and Lilli-Marie Engels were both nominated for the local sportsman`s award. Initiated by daily newspapers, mind you. This and Antonia von der Recke`s runner-up title in the amateurs was even worth a report in the ARD Mittagmagazin. This deserves recognition, even if a victory by a turf athlete would be tantamount to a sensation in national Sportsman of the Year competitions.
There was even a side note for racing in an RTL programme on 8 January. In "Denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun", the Schöneberger/Jauch/Gottschalk programme, an entertaining form of children`s birthday party for adults, the question arose in the final game whether a well-known gallop race would be called "Prize of Diana" or "Prize of Camilla". After a brief frown, Oliver Pocher knew the correct answer with "Prize of Diana". And that`s already a good sign, even if we rather think he guessed it....
