Sports Personality Of The Year -- Part III

Read parts I and II of this article here.

The final obstacle Tony McCoy will have to overcome is an organisation called Racing for Change who are charged with the task of promoting horseracing but to date their publicity drives have been as successful as the good work achieved by _BP_s PR department.

So far they have come up with fantastic initiatives like doing away with traditional betting odds such as 5/4 and 100/30 and replacing them with figures: 2.25 and 4.33 for example. Such odds are the very fabric of racing, they are what makes it unique and gives it its character. The experiment was a disaster.

Their other big breakthrough was the broadcasting of a stewards enquiry from Glorious Goodwood. It was another farce.

Here the stewards, who I would bet 100-to-one-on had all presided over a plethora of military Court Martial’s during their time fighting for Queen and Commonwealth, did no more than ask the two jockeys: “How did the race ride for you” and, once they had heard the most straightforward of responses: “I took my horse back early on and got some cover on the inside, at the two furlong pole I pulled her our and came with my challenge wide…” they sent the jockeys and the cameras out of the room.

Like what use was that to anyone? We wanted and were expecting an insight into the discussions and decision making process between those stewards. Instead we got something akin to the opening arguments from the 80’s series Crown Court which was followed by a verdict delivered over the tracks PA system.

Somewhere along the line you sense this PR machine will make a faux pas or simply over expose their man leading to a protest vote against him as was the case with 2009 X Factor winner Joe McElderry, who had the Christmas No. 1 race seemingly all wrapped up until a campaign to expose the achievement as a farce, successfully made a 17-year-old Rage Against The Machine tune the biggest selling track of the festive period.

Conclusion:
Just who is going to lift this trophy ahead of Tony McCoy remains to be seen but I suspect someone will and, with her looks, two major titles in 2010, the BBCs love of athletics and the BBC televised 2012 Olympics on the horizon, I suspect it will be Jessica Ennis.

Favorites have had a bad record in recent years and McCoy, who did finish third in the 2002 rendition of Sports Personality of the Year Award, is likely to keep that trend going. Consequently lay him at all and any odds under 6/4.

Previous Winners of the Sports Personality of the Year Award

2009 Ryan Giggs (Football)
2008 Chris Hoy (Cycling)
2007 Joe Calzaghe (Boxing)
2006 Zara Phillips (Equestrian)
2005 Andrew Flintoff (Cricket)
2004 Kelly Holmes (Athletics)
2003 Jonny Wilkinson (Rugby)
2002 Paula Radcliffe (Athletics)
2001 David Beckham (Football)
2000 Steve Redgrave (Rowing)
1999 Lennox Lewis (Boxing)
1998 Michael Owen (Football)
1997 Greg Rusedski (Tennis)
1996 Damon Hill (F1)
1995 Jonathan Edwards (Athletics)
1994 Damon Hill (F1)
1993 Linford Christie (Athletics)
1992 Nigel Mansell (F1)
1991 Liz McColgan (Athletics)
1990 Paul Gascoin (Football)
1989 Nick Faldo (Golf)