8 minute read
First Word
What makes us human?
It is the telling of tales... and the racing and bloodstock industries love a good story
THERE IS A REGULAR FEATURE on BBC Radio 2 hosted by Jeremy Vine called “What Makes Us Human?”
Science tells us that our closest relative is the chimpanzee from whom the human genome only differs by about 1.23 per cent. Apparently this amounts to about 40 million differences in our DNA, half of which likely resulted from mutations since the two species diverged.
These mutations resulted in the homosapiens species and its forebears becoming “bipedal” i.e. we walk on two legs, while chimpanzees essentially walk on all fours.
Interestingly, it is thought this is because humans largely developed on the plains of Africa where the early people needed to stand up to get the food they had spotted on low-hanging branches of the mid-height savannah-growing trees. The ape and chimpanzee, still residing in the forest, had no need to learn how to stand – any food available on a tree was 100ft above them, so standing up made no difference whatsoever.
Charles Darwin was the first to figure it out why the simple act of standing up made all the difference in separating man from ape. “Once we became bipedal, we had hands to carry tools around. We started doing that only 1.5 million years after we became bipedal.”
The eventual use of tools led those early humans to more group activity and support as we started working ... that is what scientists argue sets us apart – it is our ability to think and plan for the future, and to remember and learn from the past – what theorists of early human cognition call “higher order consciousness”
together with axes and arrows to build shelters, get food and survive. I guess that developing inter-relationship then led to a need for communication and greater understanding of each other, our individual needs and the making of plans.
I have diverged though… the various A, B and C list categories who are invited to offer their opinion to Vine on his radio show take a less scientific stance, mentioning such concepts as our ability to love, enjoy making love, develop a culture, laugh together and care for others.
I would argue that what makes us human is our capacity to tell tales and develop stories, an age-old component of the human existence.
The earliest cave wall images have been found are in Indonesia and are at least 35,400 years old, drawn long before writing was invented.
As language developed these images of hunts and wildlife transitioned into stories of derring-do that were first told around the camp fire in the desert after the strong men of the village returned from a hunter-gathering trip, onward to the Iron Age man explaining how he deftly avoided the bogs on the moor,
to the Tudor table where the longevity of the latest wife of Henry VIII would have been debated, to the appearances of the first printed Bible, the oldest book in the world, and then onto tales of sporting prowess in the hunting field and in the early match races reported in early bulletins and newspapers alongside the terrible news that Sir Robert Peel’s Conservative government was bringing the first peacetime income tax charge in 1842.
Many now tell their tales via social media, which really is just the latest technology we have for our stories.
Human beings love stories. And the racing industry loves stories, and this fact was brought home to me at the recent Tattersalls Somerville Sale when chatting to an Irish vendor of longstanding, not someone who might be expected to be particularly verbose. He said: “A wise man in this industry once said to me that this industry is not about horses it is about people, and their stories.”
Digital marketing agencies talk about content marketing as though it were some new concept dreamed up in the 21st century, but story telling is as old as the human experience, and racing, as well as the bloodstock industry, is all the better for it.
And for me this is why the Racing League did not find a niche in my consciousness.
Obviously, as a new “thing” there are not years of history to reminisce upon, but there were just no stories to be told about the teams, there was no natural cohesion within the teams to develop a team story, and little talk with the human interest stories from the team backers.
Team Swish, eToro Racing, Goat Racing – means absolutely nothing to me. A team following is generated due to a shared experience, which I can’t see is immediately forthcoming from these largely digital entities, or a loyalty created by geography or club membership. Team Newmarket and Team Ireland the only two which could legitimately create some form of brand loyalty.
No stories were told of how the teams came together, or even how the companies were formed or how the founders took their concepts to commercial reality. I do know the punters enjoyed the racing – all the horses were trying hard for the enlarged prize-money pots – and probably those involved did as well, particularly if they were in with a shot of winning the cash.
Jockeys in team colours for the Racing League
But the mechanism for the sport is wrong, and has only really grown out of a need to try and engage these digitally rich young companies giving them a new outlet through which to put their money in the sport, seemingly the BHA marketing unable to come up with any bright new shiny concepts themselves.
I have been contrasting my viewing experience of the Racing League with watching this summer’s weekly Diamond League, athletics being a sport I know little about apart from two weeks’ of expertise that I boast of through the Olympics.
Like the Racing League, the athletes do not wear recognisable colours – the usual national identity shrouded by commercial gear bestowed on them by sponsors. Particularly in the sprints through the live viewing it was difficult to follow who was who, just like in the Racing League, the lack of the usual colours meant the racing meant little.
But in the athletics, after watching three weeks of the sport, the action each evening coming thick and fast, I began to recognise names, know a little more of their individual stories. According to the commentary the 800m winner Keely Hodgkinson, just a 19-year-old, does like to party, seemingly her coaches managing to plot her a sensible course between training and letting her enjoy a normal life. Although the Racing League coverage did cover some of this sort of thing, generally the commentary came across as enforced marketing spin.
And for once as I was not watching athletics wearing a Team GB hat in the midst of Olympic national fervour, I began to follow the individuals just for themselves (although admittedly I was always more interested in the GBs racers) and it is a lesson to racing… it does not need to form teams, which is far from a natural fit for the sport, to gain a following.
The owner, the trainer, the jockey and the horse are teams in themselves – get their stories out, then the fan base will develop.
AND, this will be a anathema to a concept backed by Sky Sports, put it on mainstream TV, and on a week day evening. Not on a Sunday like this summer’s twilight meetings, Sundays are very different for families with so many other weekend activities, but maybe a Thursday after work and school, when there is very little else on the box apart from repeats.
And that goes for all racing, surely this is a slot that is being missed?
Use these young digital companies for whole race day sponsorship and individual series awards, with plenty of oomph around their spend to make it worth the investment... for instance use clever techniques for those watching to get their devices linked up with the companies’ websites and social media. In the athletics, after watching three weeks of the sport, the action each evening coming thick and fast, I began to recognise names, know a little more of individual stories –according to the commentary the 800m winner Keely Hodgkinson, just a 19-year-old, does like to party, seemingly her coaches managing to plot a sensible course between training and letting her enjoy a normal life
And make it a four or six-week series… the winning trainers / jockeys / horses get points which can build each week through a variety of races with conditions to suit as wide a variety of abilities and preferences in the horse, riding and training populations as possible, so, unlike the divided Racing League, all have a chance of competing and gaining a following that can be taken used for their own business marketing purposes.
At Qatar’s HH The Amir Sword meeting, between the big races, the racecourse holds some local match events with riders dressed in local attire, it takes little time and provides interest through the dead time between racing.
Something similar on an equine-theme related activity in the UK could easily be conceived, who knows it might be fun and, importantly, in the UK, might help moderate the twixt race drinking.
Local action provides racegoers with entertainment between races on Qatar’s HH The Amir Sword race day
Bring on a few A, B or C list celebrities – if this was being shown on mainstream TV there would be access to such types – with their social media cache and numbers of followers.
They might themselves become sporting fans or followers of racing and can spread the word – racing and sporting competition might even then get a mention on a daily radio show.
As scientists claim, humans have the ability to learn from past mistakes and can plan to improve, and we can communicate these thoughts to others and work to make better plans for the future.
Perhaps this is something we should think about more, not just in the concept of such as the Racing League, but maybe racing as whole needs to harness its “higher order consciousness”.
