The 152nd renewal of the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate will be run on 12 January 2013. It’s a day when tens of thousands of people who don’t normally go racing will descend on Kenilworth racecourse. The bulk of these will be people with just a casual connection with horse racing, who may not appreciate the relevance of the Queen’s Plate.

I have worked with the team behind Thoroughpedia in putting together two online resources, which we hope will contribute to making the day more meaningful for racegoers.

Firstly, we wanted to add a tech-based element which could be used to make the event more relevant for a broader audience. I developed a game – LQP Match Race – that introduces a few basic racing concepts in a gaming environment, at the same time as introducing gamers to past champions. The game is already live on Facebook (click here to play now). We’ve developed iOS and Android versions as well, so that this largely ‘younger’ audience can get easy mobile access as well.

There are very attractive prizes on offer, both for top performers, and also for players who do the best job of ‘networking’ (i.e. inviting friends, who then play as well).

It’s a small, first step, from which we’ll get feedback that will be incorporated into future iterations. Importantly, it’s a fresh attempt at making horse racing relevant to modern consumers.

Accompanying the game is an information-rich website about the Queen’s Plate:
www.queensplate.info
In a sense, this is a digital Hall of Fame for one of the country’s most important races.

The Queen’s Plate was first run in the 19th century; now it has some 21st century toys!