In all of the hype surrounding the wonderful achievement that Michelle Payne recorded in winning the Melbourne Cup, perhaps the greatest “back story” has been overlooked.
Yes, it is a win for other female jockey’s and what they can achieve and that they can get amazing results if provided the opportunity. Yes, it might help breakdown the male dominance of racing. Yes, it is a win for women in all sport, not just racing. Yes, it will boost the profile of other sporting women and their endeavours. There are so many facets that this win will help achieve for female athletes.
However, what appears to have been lost in the wash up and the gender discussion since, is that this result IS what racing is all about.
That moment on Tuesday when Prince of Penzance won the Melbourne Cup is the perfect advertisement on how the sport of racing transcends life to provide the greatest stories and fairytales.
Gender and the amazing achievement of Michelle Payne is only one part of this amazing yarn.
Racing is big business, the economic impact it provides to the Australian economy and its flow on effects are massive. Consider the number of horse trainers, strappers, drivers, track-workers and jockeys that are at the coal face of horse racing in both codes.
With the dollars, revenue and associated money generated, racing is commonly referred to as the racing industry. This is a fundamental flaw in what it really is.
Does the mining industry have feelgood stories inspiring people and children to be the next coal miner? Does the transport industry produce fairy tales that inspire? Would those employed in the hospitality industry have a back story that generates triumph and glory?
Yes, I’m sure that there are many great stories from every corner of life in different employment industries. Yet sport is where the greatest stories are generated, because of the meaning of sport in our lives, the ‘cultural’ assertion by which we view sport. Perhaps the biggest reason why sporting stories resonate with us is because sport can be a great leveller.
Racing needs to ensure that it pitches itself for what it really is. It is a sport. It is not an industry, because in racing the greatest stories of all the sports exist.
A quote from a university paper on the Philosophy of Sport asserts “Sport permeates any number of levels of contemporary society, and it touches upon and deeply influences such disparate elements as status, race relations, business life, automotive design, clothing styles, the concept of hero, language, and ethical values”.
Going by that, we can see that sport is all encompassing. While everyone may not be a sport fan or a racing fan, stories in sport connect and resonate with people. The greatest stories and fairy tales so often have their origins, life and finality, associated in some way to a sport.
Perhaps racing regulators and marketers need to target the feelgood factor more, shy away from the glitz, glamour, action and excitement that racing so appropriately delivers. Focus on the human element and the impact those stories generate.
Racing stories and fairy tales abound but they also have strong life lessons attached to them. Sure Michelle Payne dreamt of winning and the fairy tale finish came true, but behind the story is a truth of bloody hard work for a long time that placed her in a position to live the tale. It didn’t just happen, there are a lifetime of mini-chapters along the way that bought her to the climax of the story.
It’s these stories that racing needs to leverage. The story of Stevie Payne and his relationship with his sister, choosing the barrier that placed Prince of Penzance in the winning position for the race.
The yarns that the everyday people can relate to and racing has so many of them. In all of us there is a dreamer who yearns of achieving something great. Racing is a platform that brings those dreams to reality for those of us lucky enough to be involved.
For anyone who has ever owned a racehorse (galloper or trotter) or greyhound, they will tell you there is no feeling like seeing your pride and joy cross that line first. For many it might only be a bush maiden, but in the reality and sphere of their life, that is the Melbourne Cup.
Our country need only look to the legacy of Phar Lap and what his career meant to a country in the grips of a depression. He became a national icon, because people dared to dream and he was their hope.
The story of Joe Janiak, the Queanbeyan taxi driver that lived in a caravan at the racetrack. Joe turned a $1,400 cast-off into a cult hero and took him all the way to the toffee-nosed, top-hat and tails set of Royal Ascot and returned home a winner. By the time he retired the horse he had amassed over $6m in stakes.
The story of the Billinger family from South Australia and their hero Come On Frank, a pacer that has now won 55 races is not as well known as what many other stories from racing are, however it leaves a poignant reminder of how racing can go beyond the paradigm of being an avenue for gambling. It is a tightly woven tapestry that bursts with colour of the story that goes with the sport, providing the horse to be the healing tool for the family.
Makybe Diva is the story of a fisherman from South Australia who sported a fantastic mullet and shared his passion with his staff and with the rest of Australia. His horse has gone on to be one of the most well known female athletes of the 21st century in Australia. Not a bad result for an equine in a sport that only receives heightened and mainstream dedicated media coverage for 4 days in November and a token day here or there for the rest of the year.
Racing provides the backdrop for so many everyday people with their stories providing an intriguing plot, unseen twists with an arc to be theatre productions or a full mini-series. Yet these are the daily realities and routines of people who love the sport of racing, love their animals and work hard to achieve success.
The striking image of Gerald Mosse after he had dismounted from Red Cadeaux in this years Melbourne Cup highlights the emotional attachment that comes in the sport. In the ultimate theatre of any sport, any high stakes (monetary or other) game brings the real emotions and competitive flame out in people.
Sport is the only forum where David can meet Goliath and can spring a defeat with regular occurrence. Racing seems to achieve this more so than other sports, for in racing, the animal very rarely knows before the battle that his competitor is bigger, faster, stronger. Racing is an almighty leveller where the Joe Janiak’s of this world get to rub shoulders with royalty.
It’s where girls from the country go to bed dreaming of the day they ride the winner of the race that stops the nation.
And so back to Michelle Payne. Yes the result will help women take a big step in the fight for equality. But it’s time we stop making that the sole focus of this amazing achievement.
Don’t let gender be the focus of this story. It is a story that has too many chapters to be classified into the genre of feminism and equality. This is a story about a family that was dealt a crap hand but they didn’t fold and cash out. They grafted and fought and through that fight has come the success that is so richly deserved.
There is always a back story in racing. Finding and broadcasting those stories is the conduit to connect with the public. A trainer can prepare a horse and do everything in their power to have the animal at peak physical preparedness.
So often, it’s the plot of the back story that overtakes the actual result of the sporting contest because after all who doesn’t like to dream? What male doesn’t want to save the princess and what female doesn’t want her knight in shining armour to rescue her? People like to see fairy tales don’t they? People want to dream, to have hope and to have faith in the extraordinary happening to them.
Like the result on Tuesday, it proves that wherever there is hope and dreams, a new story is always on the shelf ready to be released for publication. The sport of racing harbours these dreams and offers the rocket ship to success. It just depends who is ready for take-off.
Gender and equality should not be the story we remember this Melbourne Cup for. The 2015 Melbourne Cup and moreover the sport of racing should evoke the following:
The sport of racing always has the best-sellers, we just need more characters in the story and more people to help in the narration.
****This is the link for the story on the Billinger family, first screened some time back on Sky Channel’s In The Gig, when Come On Frank’s career was yet to fully develop to where it is today.
dashman01's observations 