COLUMN 48 ADIYAT RACING PLUS ISSUE 840 Thursday 4th April 2024 adiyat racing plus.com adiyat racing plus.com Unexpected but unavoidable absence from Meydan last week meant that following this familiar extravaganza from the outside provided a whole new experience for anyone who would normally be rails-side on Dubai World Cup night. And one lesson stood out above all: the Dubai Racing Club guided the event to a coming-of-age as far as social media is concerned. A scourge on occasions, with anyone and everyone appearing to feel that their opinions should be heard, the various platforms on which news and views are generally disseminated these days were used adroitly by the DRC media team as instantly-available lifelines for those following DWC 24 from afar. Starting from the collation of mass initial entries, coverage of likely contenders was gradually whittled down and emphasis increased on facts, until the first overseas challengers began to arrive and video information was racked up a notch, night and day. Video was the key. These days, a picture really does tell a thousand words, and coverage of morning exercise from the moment the first runners from outside the UAE exited quarantine on to the main dirt track was as comprehensive as possible. Location and timing of the gathering for morning exercise at Meydan puts it on par with Sha Tin in Hong Kong as an event like no other in the world. The pitch for photographers and their video equivalents during DWC week is on two sides of a triangle formed by the outer rails near the 1800m turf-course start, looking straight across to the iconic grandstands, with a gazebo conveniently placed to serve welcoming Danish pastries, muffins, tea and coffee. Timing is equally attractive for video, as long as the operator is prepared to follow Japanese time. Fast work at 5am local time for their team is par for the course early in the week, which means that results can cover the whole gamut of working under lights in the dark to the rest of the overseas posse’s appearance as the sun rises. DRC ramped up the week’s information supply with morning press conferences shared on Zoom and up-to-the-minute news – the withdrawal of Regional and Anaaf being useful items for British followers in particular – from a variety of overseas writers, including Tom Peacock and Scott Burton, Racing Post staffers who appeared to be using their holiday allocation to good advantage, Alan Carasso from TDN in America, and Andrew Hawkins from Australia, as well as less well-known names in local journalists Mohammad Asmajah and Suleiman Altaf. Other outlets joined in, particularly the hugely expanded coverage from the much smaller, but equally dedicated team at Adiyat Racing Plus. Not far behind was the might of World Horse Racing, a conglomerate mounted by the race clubs of Ascot, Breeders’ Cup, Hong Kong, Goodwood and Victoria, whose scoop of the event was to find video of the sale and early races of Kazakhstan’s wonder horse Kabirkhan. Gradually, individual additions to the information and opinion pool mounted as the Racing Post’s deputy editor Stuart Riley and the now-familiar mass of Japanese personnel joined the reporting throng. No stone, however minute, seemed to be overturned by someone on some channel or other. And so to the meeting itself, which claimed being seen in around 150 countries, thanks to DRC’s working with its UK-based appointed distribution and production company Racecourse Media Group and agency HBA Media. UK viewers would, like me, have plumped for Racing TV Extra, under the leadership of the ubiquitous Nick Luck, which looked at every angle for all eight races from immaculate white leather armchairs, positioned paddock-side and occupied by Rishi Persad, Angus McNae and Martin Dwyer. Spoilt only by the contributions of a female interviewer who seemed overawed by the occasion and asked questions that would have curled up Joey Barton’s toes, the team put in a shift of over six hours that captured all the glory of a glorious day’s racing. As a substitute for being there, it was up with the best. — WHEN THE DUBAI WORLD CUP CAME OF AGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA HOWARD WRIGHT
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