Racing:Increased pandering to TV and off-course bookies is a worrying development. Brian O'Connorreports

The Curragh's last meeting of 2007 is a suitably cold and damp signpost to the approaching winter jumping game. Racing's headquarters might be the home of the classics, but last Monday's damp, grey conditions resonate more of a January afternoon at Thurles than of any glamorous, multi-million-euro Group One day.

Before racing begins the only colour seems to come from garishly tarpaulined trucks flashing past half a mile away on the N8. Just in front of the stands, bookmakers' umbrellas peep hopefully through the gloom, like the tops of tents on a particularly wet expedition.

The shale-bottomed infield that contained corporate entertainment marquees on big racing days during the summer is blackly damp and empty, with pallets and concrete blocks thrown against a timber fence that shakes in the wind. And in the stands, there's a sense of solitude that won't do agoraphobics any good at all.

Some 15 minutes before the first race, the runners enter the parade ring to a barrage of apathy. Maybe 10 people are willing to brave the elements and stand hunched against the rain to watch the 11 runners. Officials at the track reckon there may be 1,000 people here overall, and that's including jockeys, trainers and owners, not to mention officials and others working.

As it's a Monday and their last day of the season, the Curragh management have decided on free admission, but the tactic hasn't exactly spurred a tide of humanity to descend on the place. It's a positive move that few expect to yield dramatic results. As the old story goes, the bouncers might as well be outside throwing them in.

Officially, it is what is termed an "industry day", which means the objective is to allow as many horses to run as possible. At this time of year, that primarily means two-year-olds, those young horses that will provide the backbone of next season's flat racing. Four of the eight races are for juveniles.

It's not particularly exciting stuff, nor is it meant to be. For many people, though, such days are becoming far too prevalent.

"There's far too much racing nowadays in Ireland," says one of the biggest and most senior bookmakers, looking out over a largely deserted betting ring.

"This is a waste of time today, and the problem is that it's devaluing the whole product. The country's simply not big enough to cope with all this racing."

It's a gripe echoed by many bookmakers and other professionals within the industry.

To illustrate his point, one official lifts up a formbook from 1996. It is a small, compact document with 1,794 individual races recorded in it. Then he reaches for last year's edition, a remodelled A4 document that is twice the size and records almost 500 more races.

"I've got the new Ireland in my hands," he says.

It is indeed a physical reflection of racing's remarkable success story in the last decade. Unprecedented wealth has seen a colossal growth in racehorse ownership and, not unreasonably, those owners paying the bills feel getting to watch their pride and joy racing every once in a while is the least they can expect for their money.

As a result, it has been a beano time for trainers and jockeys, especially on the back of prize-money that is the envy of many other jurisdictions around Europe, particularly Britain.

The evidence all round is of an industry in raucous good health. Never before have there been as many horses in training in Ireland and never before has there been such a demand for races to run them in.

In the sporting sense, however, the result is days like this, when there might be as many horses as spectators.

"Too much of a good thing turns into a bad thing. I know everyone looks at the issue from their own angle, but objectively there's no question that there's too much racing. More horses means lower-quality horses, which keep the quality of the product down, which in turn means people lose interest," says Ciarán O'Tierney of the Irish National Bookmakers Association.

"The days of country towns taking half days in the middle of the week for the races, and everyone going, are gone. Because of the way things are financed, we're in danger of forgetting how to get people through the gates," he adds.

Betting money is now vital to racing's wellbeing, and television money rather than gate money is the basis for the survival of racecourses.

Those watching at home don't particularly care about racecourse atmosphere just so long as there are opportunities for betting. The Curragh will receive an estimated €30,000 from SIS and Attheraces for today. Every fixture is worth the same for every track. Next year that fee is expected to increase.

Overall, TV money is worth about €12 million to racecourses. That's a lot of bodies through the stiles.

"It wouldn't be viable without TV money," the Curragh manager Paul Hensey concedes. "We have profit days in our classic and Group One days but as the home of flat racing we do have a responsibility to stage races that help out the industry and provide opportunities to run, which means a day like today."

The scene is repeated at Fairyhouse's National Hunt card on Tuesday, where there is an official crowd of just 938, and at Navan on Wednesday, which also has free admission. At a time of year when traditionally the number of fixtures decreased dramatically, the racing circus in Ireland continues to roll on. It will be Monday week before there is a blank day.

Trying to strike a balance between the demands of owners and trainers for more opportunities and at the same time not dilute quality for the sake of a pure numbers game is the sport's ruling body, Horse Racing Ireland.

"It depends who you talk to. Trainers will want more fixtures and if we put on another 100 meetings, we would be able to fill them, and still have balloting," says the HRI chief executive, Brian Kavanagh. "But we deliberately haven't gone down the route they've gone down in the UK, where they have a huge amount of racing for very low prize-money."

He adds: "Ireland is the third-largest producer of horses in the world but inevitably we are a small racing country, in terms of population and numbers going racing. So we always have a balance to strike in terms of fixtures. The reality is, however, that every sporting fixture list is different now from what it was 10 years ago. Look at the GAA playing under floodlights in Croke Park, or the rugby guys on Friday nights in Donnybrook. It's a question of social change in the whole country. Racecourses have to work to get people in."

The HRI initiative, heavily backed by Government money, has been a radical capital development fund that has changed the face of many courses, including the Curragh, which is in the middle of a €100-million facelift. At festival meetings especially, the impact has been almost uniformly positive. But improving facilities for non-existent customers at racecourses that are primarily financed by television revenue is an apparent contradiction that could become much more glaring in the coming years.

The first race at the Curragh on Monday generated €28,780 in turnover with the bookmakers, most of it in a gamble on the favourite, Age Of Chivalry. That gamble was also reflected on the internet betting exchanges, with over half a million in turnover on Betfair alone. Throw in off-course bookmaker business and it's obvious that the most money is being generated away from the tracks. It has always been the case, but never more so than now.

"Live TV has brought about a fundamental change. People can now sit at home and actually have more betting options than they would at a racecourse," says Brian Kavanagh, who is just as aware as anyone about the challenges that presents to tracks getting bodies through the gates.

"No one wants to see a situation like they have in France where there's no one at most meetings. You'd get more in an average betting shop," says Paul Hensey. "But with all the off-course activity in France, racing is still very profitable there."

An even more doom-laden future for those who believe that racecourse atmosphere is an integral part of the sport in Ireland can be conjured from even a cursory peep across the Atlantic. A massive crowd will attend today's Breeders' Cup extravaganza at Monmouth Park and major race days continue to attract people. But the vast majority of meetings don't. Instead, in many states, including New York, the product is paid for by track casinos, or "racinos", where slot machines end up financing the activity out on the track.

Government finance means a different situation applies in this country but a scenario where run-of-the-mill race meetings are held primarily for television-betting purposes in front of paltry crowds doesn't take a massive leap of the imagination.

"I don't think it will come to that here. Irish people love horses too much for that," argues O'Tierney.

Anyone who has attended the likes of Galway, Listowel or any of the other major festival meetings would no doubt concur but trading on presumption is a dangerous habit to develop.

"We are very conscious of the danger of putting on too much racing. That's why up to 10 per cent of our races in Ireland are black-type events, designed to bring a better quality of race and a better quality of horse running in it. But it's a reality that there are only a certain number of good-quality horses. The trick is to develop the big meetings while not diluting the meetings elsewhere," argues Brian Kavanagh.

"I don't go with the term 'industry day'. The Curragh's free admission idea is something different. And the different situation that all sports find themselves in now means all racecourses have to be more imaginative in attracting people."

The Numbers Game: How Irish racing has fared since 2000

Total racecourse attendance in Ireland has followed a mostly upward curve since 2000 with a 2006 figure of 1.45 million paying through the gates. However, the total figures don't paint a full picture as last year's come from 319 meetings compared to 270 in the year 2000. So the average attendance at race meetings has actually dropped from 5,373 in 2000 to 4,873 in 2006.

At the start of the decade, the total number of horses in training in Ireland was just over 8,000. In the following six years the figure increased to 11,109, and a further increase is expected for 2007.

New ownership figures soared to 1,386 last year. They competed for a total prize-fund of just over €55 million. The total prize-fund in 2000 was €30.7 million.

FIXTURES IN IRELAND THIS DECADE

2000- 270

2001- 268

2002- 279

2003- 303

2004- 305

2005- 313

2006- 319

HORSES IN TRAINING THIS DECADE

2000- 8028

2001- 8800

2002- 9158

2003- 9360

2004- 9618

2005- 10,416

2006- 11,109

TOTAL ATTENDANCES THIS DECADE

2000- 1.35 million

2001- 1.29 m

2002- 1.28 m

2003- 1.39 m

2004- 1.38 m

2005- 1.43 m

2006- 1.45 m

NEW OWNERS THIS DECADE

2000- 711

2001- 786

2002- 817

2003- 848

2004- 1,000

2005- 969

2006- 1,386