KEY POINTS:
The Canterbury Jockey Club's Tim Mills is scratching his head no less than a few other topline racing club managers.
What's the secret to racing's sudden remarkable renaissance?
Looking at the staggering crowd that filled Riccarton to bursting point on Saturday a few things became clear.
First, the
weather has to be right.
And it was - in spades.
It has to be a well promoted carnival day.
It was.
Topline horses and jockeys.
They were there.
But they've always been there, and the weather's often been good and racedays have been well promoted.
There's something deeper.
Here's a thought - has racing finally got something exclusive over the others sports and gambling opportunities that for the past two decades have bled away from racing the top-of-the-pile image it once had - women who like dressing up?
The whole world is steadily dressing down. Perhaps that's a good thing - less pomp.
But it might be happening a little too quickly for some women.
Inescapably, young women like dressing up and going to a party.
Who is going to spend $600 to $1000 on an outfit to go to a rugby test?
And you don't see too many designer outfits at a car rally.
Major racedays, like Saturday's $220,000 New Zealand Cup day at Riccarton, provide one of the few remaining opportunities for bright young women to dress right up and enjoy a party atmosphere.
Really, think about how many other opportunities there are.
And there's no secret to the fact that where the girls go, the boys follow.
The Victoria Racing Club has more money than it knows what to do with thanks to recent remarkably successful four-day Melbourne Cup carnivals.
The biggest gain the VRC has made is its promotion of Oaks Day, two days after the Cup.
It's promoted for the women, and for those who haven't been it's a spectacle that is not to be missed.
It's so popular with women looking to dress to their best, the crowd numbers have risen in little more than a decade from around 35,000 to 85,000- 90,000.
During the year the VRC promotes the occasional "Girls' Day".
Melbourne's brightest females flock through the gates, and guess who's right behind them?
They don't promote a blokes' day. They don't need to.
Boxing Day at Ellerslie has increasingly become a target for the north's fashionable young and Wellington Cup Day has followed the trend.
The common denominator is big, well promoted, carnival racedays.
You're going to look a touch out of place in a $800 dress with a $300 tit-for-tat on top at a Thursday meeting at Waverley or Paeroa.
There's a need for additional icon racedays and the upsweep of both administrative nous and stakemoney in thoroughbred racing is the perfect environment in which to see it happen.
What needs to run with it is the best possible racecourse facilities.
Racing has only itself to blame for originally losing some of its following.
It didn't keep up when live racing coverage into homes, pubs and clubs was a big incentive to stay home.
It took a long time to wake up that the attitude of give 'em a cold pie and a warm beer and make 'em stand on concrete floors and in betting queues 10 deep doesn't work.
Men might think they rule the corporate and sporting worlds.
But it might just be true what women say.
They've been kidding to us all along, they actually hold all the lead ropes.
