RACING FEATURES 



turned out to attract readers. It has often been very 

 refreshing to get into a crowded railway carriage and 

 see several reading what has been written for them by 

 me. I had always had the idea that a great thing with 

 regard to racing articles was to keep them up to the 

 same length during the winter. The racing man wants 

 his column, as others ^vill look for the continuation 

 of a serial story, or the woman for her fashions, or 

 again the football fanatic for his entertainment. 

 When there has been no racing on occasions I have 

 looked to see what contemporaries were doing in the 

 way of sporting news, and have seen that sometimes 

 there was only a short paragraph, or even nothing at 

 all, about racing. That is the very moment when a 

 little bit extra should be provided for a reader of turf 

 topics. On a racing day he has racing programmes 

 and the book form to study, but even then will always 

 read the racing article. You see my point about the 

 necessity to keep him amused. That may account to 

 an extent for a paper's success, for there is no doubt 

 there are tens of thousands of halfpenny newspaper 

 readers who cannot discriminate between the way the 

 ordinary news is served up to them perhaps in different 

 styles. Then the shipping news, the Stock Exchange, 

 cricket scores, racing results are all the same, and a 

 murder trial or a railway mystery is still ail the same, 

 whichever paper is read. But that same individual 

 may be very critical yet appreciative of what is told 

 him concerning the turf. Yes, indeed, racing is 

 before any other sport in attracting a big circulation. 

 Advertising managers have a way of saying that 

 a circulation through sporting news is no good to 

 a paper; well, one has to put up with their excuses 

 for not being able to get all the business there 

 is about. But I should like to see a daily paper 



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