I wish it could be OBX every day…

MONTHS of planning, with everything delivered and in place by midnight on Christmas Eve: it could be the schedule for Father Christmas and his team of elfin helpers. This, though, is reality, demonstrated through the programme drawn up by John Bozza, Chief Executive of RaceTech, as racing’s main services provider tackles its busiest period of the year, Boxing Day and the following 24 hours.

Whatever the weather, RaceTech will be nationwide this Christmas

The company, which is owned by the Racecourse Association, will have about 100 staff and tonnes of equipment in place to provide photo-finish and broadcast facilities for all eight meetings on Boxing Day and four the following day.

Bozza, who joined RaceTech in March 2017 with more than 30 years’ experience in the broadcast and telecommunication sector to his name, explains: “We start planning about three months in advance, when we begin to plot out which crews are going where and which outside broadcast units we will be using. That level of planning is crucial.

“We now have about 130 fulltime staff, and the number on duty fluctuates from fixture to fixture, but over the Christmas period it really is a matter of all hands on deck.”

Bozza adds that planning any rota depends on who holds the broadcast rights to a particular fixture, whether ITV is taking the meeting and if Racing TV or Sky Sports Racing has on-site presentation.

“If it’s a bigger fixture, there will be more cameras on course to account for more on-track presenters, as well as the racecourse’s own closed-circuit TV coverage, which has become much larger in recent years,” he says.

“Take British Champions Day at Ascot for example. This year the broadcast rights were being handled by Sky Sports Racing, Racing TV, ITV and the Hong Kong Jockey Club, among others. That meant there were lots of outlets involved, and we serviced all of them.

“Then, if you look at such as the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot, production for the racecourse TV has got bigger and bigger.”

RaceTech will have some 40 vehicles in action over the two days of the Christmas period, including 18 HGVs, nine crew buses and approximately 12 camera hoists, while a quarter of the work force on Boxing Day, around 25 people, will be deployed at Kempton Park, the biggest meeting of the day.

“Whatever the fixture, our main priority is to make sure the trucks are there,” Bozza says. “Adverse weather can impact that, but we aim to get our kit on site at least the day before, if we can, which is where the planning process comes into play.

“We need to be set up well before the crowds arrive, whether it’s Kempton Park or one of the other seven courses, for whom Boxing Day is so commercially important.”

Bozza’s arrival at RaceTech, which began life as the Race Finish Recording Company in 1946 and was later known as Racecourse Technical Services, has heralded a period of significant expansion.

RaceTech’s services have expanded to cover a multitude of integral parts of the raceday

“When I started, we had seven outside broadcast vehicles, five of which were high definition and two standard definition,” he says. “Now we have ten vehicles, all HD, after decommissioning the SD vans and buying five new HD units, and around those main units there are lots of support vehicles, crew buses and mobile studios.

“The driver for this spending was last year’s activity around securing contracts with our major customers. We were successful in renewing the Racing TV contract; we won the contract with The Racing Partnership that includes Sky Sports Racing, and we won contracts with racecourses such as Ascot, Chester/Bangor and Chelmsford.

“That ensured our expansion of equipment but also in people, because we’ve taken on around 40 new staff. I’m very proud to say that delivery has been excellent in working with the increased fixture list.”

Being ahead of the game in the planning process means that the majority of the RaceTech team will celebrate Christmas Day at home.

“Boxing Day is the big day,” Bozza says, “certainly one of the biggest of the year for us with eight fixtures, so we try to do as much preparation and planning as we possibly can in the weeks building up to it to give everybody a chance to spend Christmas Day at home.”

He himself will enjoy a family Christmas at home in Shenfield, close to Chelmsford City racecourse, with wife Helen – “She’s the cook and the brains of the kitchen” – daughter Emelia, 14, and son Luca, 11. But he will still have one eye on the weather.

“The phones will be on for the duty managers, myself and Paul Newman, our Director of Engineering and Operations,” Bozza says. “We’ll be keeping an eye on the Racing Post and BHA websites to make sure we’re across any industry news.  We also receive the Weatherbys text service so that if there is an abandonment, we can communicate that to the relevant crews who are due to be engaged the next day.

The complete broadcast experience is reliant on the expertise and equipment of RaceTech

“We watch the forecasts, but you can’t really be sure about the weather and abandonments can happen right up to the day of racing, so we have to make regular checks.

“Boxing Day is a popular day for us, because there’s invariably a buzz around the racecourses, where attendances are generally high. The crews enjoy it because we love to feel part of racing.

“And it’s not just the crews. My management team are out and about across the country as well, and I’ll be at Kempton Park. We’ll be helping where we can, supporting our teams, and delivering chocolates and Christmas cake.”