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This is an adjunct to the ‘Crazy race planning’ thread, started because I really have no idea how the fixture list works.
How does a course bid for fixtures? Is it a set price? Who do they pay and how much? Are there any restrictions, numerically or geographically etc? Are they obliged to have a mix of weekdays, weekends, Bank Holidays? Are certain ‘big’ fixtures assured of their slots?
Mike
Mike,
If you go here:
http://www.britishhorseracing.com/resource-centre/fixture-list/
and scroll down, there’s a link to a discussion document related to the 2015 fixture list, which can be downloaded as a PDF. From what I remember of reading this at the time (too much to go through again now), it will answer most of your questions.
In essence, if I understand the process, the vast bulk of the fixtures are fixed from year to year. Obviously that covers all the festivals, but basically, if you raced on a particular day last year, you get to race on that date again unless you decide you no longer want the fixture.
The bidding process is based on how much prize money the course is prepared to put up for a vacant date, but there are other factors taken into account. But it only applies to a limited number of fixtures. When I referred to courses bidding for fixtures over the BH weekend, it wasn’t this process I was referring to, but just saying that a course has to express an interest in wanting to race on a particular date, and if they don’t, the BHA can’t make them. I can see now that my use of the word ‘bid’ served to confuse the issue!
The loons at it again 4.10 Cartmel 3m5f 4.15 Huntingdon 1m7f
How difficult is it to schedule the final race at Huntington for 4.20.
It really isn’t
Mike,
If you go here:
http://www.britishhorseracing.com/resource-centre/fixture-list/
Thanks Alan. It seems that the idea is to offer the same fixtures as last year with changes made when courses request them. I compile our cricket club’s fixtures on the same basis!
AW racing seems to be a more moveable feast, mind. Overall, it’s more complex than I thought.
Mike
It always used to interest me in the old days how certain courses always seemed to race mainly on one particular day of the week.
You could always rely in those days on Taunton and Wincanton nearly always racing on a Thursday, with the very occasional Friday just for a change. I remember being told years ago that there was a reason for it nearly always being a Thursday, something to do with the needs of the local farming communities, I seem to remember.
Then there was Fakenham nearly always having a Friday, apart from its Bank Holiday Mondays and the long-gone Saturday in December that formed part of the ITV Seven once a year.
Sedgefield nearly always used to race on a Tuesday and Leicester nearly always had Mondays, sometimes with a second-day Tuesday.
I always used to think how unfair it seemed that Ludlow and Pontefract didn’t have any Saturdays. Nothing much seems to have changed.
I remember being told that the reason that Pontefract’s meetings nearly always used to start at 2.45pm was that it was to give the local miners chance to get to the course after finishing their shifts at 2pm.
I presume those courses that had these seemingly unfavourable weekday meetings must have been quite happy or that there must have been local reasons for them having the particular “quiet” days on which they raced. If not, I presume the managements would have railed against the unfairness of it when other seemingly more favoured courses had lots of Saturdays.
The vagaries of the fixture list conceal plenty of interesting tales of why quite a lot of smaller courses seemingly appear quite happy to race on days of the week which others would avoid.
I presume grant payments from the racing authorities and TV rights payments are now a key factor these days in allowing courses to keep racing on what would be seen years ago as quiet weekday slots.
The management of Ludlow doesn’t seem to mind all those midweek fixtures and apparently remains a thriving, well supported and profitable course. Similarly, Norman Gundill at Pontefract has never seemed to mind the lack of Saturdays.
I remember being told that the reason that Pontefract’s meetings nearly always used to start at 2.45pm was that it was to give the local miners chance to get to the course after finishing their shifts at 2pm
A touch apochryphal but largely true: the early shift at the Prince of Wales colliery across the road did finish at 2 and the racecourse duly catered for them
Alex Higgins won the World Snooker Championship down the road in Sheffield in late April 1982. He was expected to mumble the expected nonsense to the world’s media on the Monday following his win but didn’t turn up, having eloped to Pontefract instead…nice one
Crusty, nice post.
I think the long-established rural courses are among the few who would survive without subsidy, and perhaps even without structured betting.
From my betting shop days I seem to recall that Windsor almost always raced on Mondays.
On a slight tangent, but an irresistible one for me as it leads straight to the saddle of one of my hobby horses.
The BHA ought to have full control of the fixture list – allocation and commercial. Loss of the power to negotiate media rights en bloc was a major blunder imo, handing piecemeal power to individual tracks/groups.
How chaotic would professional football media income be if each club bargained on its own behalf with only its interests at heart?
Windsor still do.
I use to think they did it for Richard Hughes to help the miserable sod get over the Monday blues….
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
It always used to interest me in the old days how certain courses always seemed to race mainly on one particular day of the week.
I believe regular racing days at some rural tracks also tend/tended to be Market Days in the towns. Buy and sell livestock in the morning, spend the proceeds at the races in the afternoon
If it’s Windsor it must be Monday indeed but they do also have a mid-August weekend ‘festival’ featuring the decent Winter Hill Stakes on Saturday evening; a meeting that used to bring the curtain down on evening racing. I also recall a goodish Saturday NH card too, or was it New Year’s Day?
Weekday gaff meetings are an utter joy to attend if one is in the fortunate position of being able to do so; they have a timeless yet not-of-this-time aura about them: a few hours of whimsical, gently relaxing sanctuary from the real world. Long may they prosper
Wincanton always raced on Thursdays, except for its Boxing Day and Easter Monday fixtures.
Presumably Thursday was early closing day. Also, for any one day, all the race names used to begin with the same letter. On Easter Monday, it was “A”.
How chaotic would professional football media income be if each club bargained on its own behalf with only its interests at heart?
I believe this was mooted a few years back by the likes of United.
Mike
Drone,
Windsor did have jumping on a Saturday in mid February, usually one week after the Schweppes and one week before the Racing Post meeting at Kempton. Ironically it was the same saturday that also had the Nottingham card with a Champion Hurdle trial and an Arkle Chase trial. The feature at Windsor was a 3M conditions chase called the Fairlawne Chase, last run in the mid 90’s I think. Good winners that I can recall seeing were Rhyme N Reason and Toby Tobias.
When Windsor and Nottingham gave up jumping, that opened the Saturday slot eventually taken by Wincanton for the Kingwell Hurdle card, previously run on the Thursday after the Windsor meeting.
Ah yes, bells are ringing, thanks. My thought of Windsor racing on New Year’s Day was I think a mixture of confusion and dodgy sublimity as there’s a Fairlawne Chase run at Cheltenham on that day!
That Thursday Kingwell/Jim Ford meeting was one of your favourites if I recall correctly
The Badger Beer Chase in November also used to be on a Thursday and there was also the John Bull Chase in January, a race that’s no more and by happy coincidence once won by Toby Tobias
When I was an LBO manager back in the day, I remember the annual nightmare afternoon of a busy summer Friday or Saturday when Newmarket, Newbury and Newcastle all decided to race on the same day (it happens this year on 23rd June!).
This inevitably led to a stack of 5p e/w Super Flags or Union Jack Round Robins marked ‘1.55 New, 2.50 New, 3.35 New, 4.15 New, 5.25 New’ etc etc.
One should at least be glad that Newton Abbot had yet to start summer jumping at that time.
Mike
Ah yes, bells are ringing, thanks. My thought of Windsor racing on New Year’s Day was I think a mixture of confusion and dodgy sublimity as there’s a Fairlawne Chase run at Cheltenham on that day!
Windsor used to race on New Year’s Day many years ago and the racing, featuring the New Year’s Day Hurdle, used to be quite a good card. It was occasionally televised in the old days as part of shared coverage and made for good viewing.
The course returned briefly to jumping when Ascot’s development work was being carried out and it was good when two Saturday cards in November and December were televised by the BBC.
Windsor was a bit unlucky a couple of times, I remember, when the rescheduled Ascot jumping cards were abandoned because of bad weather on a couple of occasions when they were due to be covered by the BBC.
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