Being pretty much born into the creative world because of a mother who was an artist and a father who eked out a living as a part time musician when we were living in what was then known as Ceylon, whatever and whoever guides us to wherever we need to go has drawn me to the backstory of a fairly unknown twentysomething Australian jockey named Harry Coffey.
I was mentioning his name to some friends in Hong Kong who have nothing to do with horse racing after the young rider had won the Group 1 Caulfield Cup on Saturday in Australia.
My friends had never heard of this race or what winning this Group 1 race might have meant to Harry Coffey.
They even had no idea what a Group 1 win even meant. And why would they?
Let’s never forget that when I first started creating what became the Hong Kong Jockey Club Happy Wednesday brand, many of the those who became loyal young regulars living in what was then a very international city thought that jockeys owned the horses that raced and the same horses ran in every race.
Getting back to Harry Coffey, this meant explaining everything that the young rider has gone through in life to continue doing what he lives to do: competing in race riding.
Though having never met Harry Coffey, longtime friends in racing like former jockeys John Didham, who rode for father Austy Coffey, Samuel Hyland and Brent “The Babe” Thomson who’s going through a wonderful renaissance period that has the support of so many, have always spoken highly about Harry Coffey.
Not that he’s a globe trotting superstar jockey living the high life, but how grounded he is- how he has fought off and beaten everything that might have held him back, and has kept living the dream that has kept him going.
He’s a very good young role model for a pastime that’s very probably seen better days and like every other industry is in the middle of great change.
Learning much about horse racing from the mistakes I made by becoming too friendly too quickly with some in the game, then schooled in almost every other aspect of the pastime by my barrister friend Kevin Egan, and learning about the business side of things during the twelve years working with the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club on creating what became the game changing Happy Wednesday brand, Harry Coffey is a “horse racing product” that can help change a corporate narrative that’s become increasingly repetitive.
How many more years, for example, are we going to hear words like “resilience” and “challenges” and the usual trotting out of numbers- turnover numbers, attendance numbers and numbers about numbers, and the bloated executive puffery of the very old boys club?
As someone who understands the difference between marketing and public relations- and sees the not so subtle self promotion at work that’s somehow so invaluable in an often pretentious city like Hong Kong- someone like Harry Coffey provides horse racing- and not only in Australia- with a very inspirational story at a time when inspiration around the world is in short supply.
This intangible something is called giving horse racing an emotional attachment- not something that becomes a vapid throwaway line or photos and videos of jockeys hugging horses after winning a major race or feeding carrots to their equine friends.
Horse racing needs to realise that there are hundreds of thousands of people who know nothing about the game- especially about those important Feel Good stories- and how to keep interest in the pastime alive by building on these and creating a kinda stairway to the stars.
It was Harry Coffey’s 29th birthday on Saturday when he won the Group 1 Caulfield Cup by leading almost all the way on the Ciaran Maher trained Duke De Sessa and always looking in control of the race.
He then got that winning break and both he and horse became a team and the perfect storm breezed through Caulfield leaving in their wake very good gallopers ridden by far more well known names like Joao Moreira, Zac Purton, Andrea Atzeni and Tim Clark
Listening to Harry Coffey, here is someone who appears to take everything in his stride.
He’s had well documented health issues with cystic fibrosis and spent much of his childhood in and out the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Times change, however, new medication is introduced, mental agility comes into play and standing there is someone young, and with the internal fortitude to fight against the odds and win.
What’s also shown is the importance of friendships and support systems, something Harry Coffey shares with best friends like Melbourne Cup winning jockey Jye McNeil and the very much in-demand Michael Dee.
At a time when especially new brands, sponsors and the mainstream media, and even longtime supporters of racing are referring to horse racing as a “sunset industry”, inspirational stories like that of Harry Coffey should not be something that’s here today and gone tomorrow.
There’s a need for creative and marketing sustainability- but without resorting to maudlin clichés.
There should perhaps be something like Be Like Harry Coffey merch, a Harry Coffey Cystic Fibrosis Fund, an honorary Harry Coffey Caulfield Cup ambassadorship and plenty of content that follows his progress- and positivity.
Maybe even some Coffey beats and EDM Ibiza sounds from fellow jockey and part time DJ Ben Allen.
Reticent to share ideas for free about an industry I find to be rather lopsided, there are still untapped marketing opportunities in young riders like Harry Coffey, Jye McNeil, Zac Lloyd, Michael Dee, Jaylah Kennedy, Luke Ferraris, Angela Jones, Melissa Julius and many others.
In these young guns, who are not unlike the very audience that racing has problems attracting on a regular basis, horse racing has the answer to repel things like those weak kneed and stupid anti gambling ads and the evil necessity the game is to some governments.
But do they know how to do this?
Here are also those who can breathe some new life into an industry that desperately needs a facelift, a different business model without veering too far away from the original version, and a new pulse- preferably not from the Tobin Brothers, the main sponsor of the Dead People’s Racing and Sports station.
How?
By having people- an international cast of savvy young entrepreneurs with very different marketing and communications skill sets than those who remain leaders when knowing their relevance might have been bigly around forty years ago.
The same old and now same old, but older and being propped up by well paid sycophants.
Question: Can horse racing attract those with the experience and the smarts who know how to make all this work- and make something rather old look young and as ballsy and confident as Harry Coffey in the process?
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