What type of racegoer are you?

Across the world, interest in horseracing puts the sport in the mainstream, all the more remarkable as unlike most ball sports, a racehorse is not something you can pick up in the school break. Small wonder that the channel of those graduating to become professional riders still has a very narrow demographic profile.

I've always considered that racing's audience falls into one of three loose categories, often overlapping.

Gamblers

Inevitably, the largest group comprises those who enjoy a bet on horse racing. Many racing jurisdictions, the UK included, are entirely reliant upon revenue from betting to survive. the most successful of these is the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which enjoys a monopoly of all types of betting in the former British colony. The HKJC managed an extraordinary HK$48.1bn in revenue in the last financial year, of which 77% was put back into Hong Kong, either direct into the sport, or through charitable investments.

France is often held up as an example to British racing's impecunious state, with €760m to fund the sport last year. Racing audiences in france are not a patch on the UK, however.

And there are genres of racing where betting plays no part at all. Attend one of the 30 jumps fixtures in the US east coast calendar, and there's not a bookmaker in sight. And we all know from attending any UK Point-to-Point that a £100 bet will have the price wiped off all the bookmaker boards in a flash.

Socialites

No-one would argue that going racing is a very sociable activity. Even if you head for the races alone, you're bound to pick up a friend there. It's a gregarious sport where dressing up, having a drink with mates and a small wager is par for the course. I was interested to read recently that the Jockey Club - Britain's largest racecourse group - is ceasing to insist on any dress code for its events. this is counter-intuitive to so many other jurisdictions. Attend a fixtture at any Australian metropolitan course and everyone - male and female - will be in their best bib and tucker, and relish the chance to dress up. the same is the case in Hong Kong or Japan. Even in the only crazy race in Botswana, the ladies make a huge effort and the occasion is the more colourful for it.

We haven't yet made something of this in the Pointing scene. I wonder sometimes if we're missing a trick. Every self-respecting picnic race in rural Australian courses presents a Fashions in the Field contest to allow dressing up. And in the USA, where tickets to Jump fixtures like the iroquois, or for the 40,000 who jam-pack Far Hills each October, are measured in hundreds of $, the success of a raceday is better measured by the opulence of the tailgate picnic than by how many winners were selected.

Current British racecourse managers are busy fuelling the socialite genre with the addition of music nights, themed racedays and so on. Hopefully this is not to mask an education of new racegoers about the thrills of our sport.

Wannabes

The third genre of racegoer is the horseman, brought up with horses, who enjoys the sport for the grace and speed of the thoroughbred. Among the younger element are those aspiring to be the next A P McCoy. But it's important for the sport to have a knowledgeable audience who understand the limits of a horse's physionomy and empathize with the animal.

Of course, a majority of racegoers share all of these traits, but equally there are racegoers only interested in gambling, or a drink, or following the horses. Appealing to each of these groups is what alters the profile of crowds like Cheltenham's Countryside raceday, compared to a Newmarket Music night.

So which are you? Are you all three, or have you eschewed betting for the social element of a day's racing? Or can you adda comment with other reasons why you go racing to fuel the debate?