- This topic has 51 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 10 months ago by
.
- Posts
Much as I would like this to succeed, and some of the new leaders of the sport are able and imaginative people, I fear that Aussie Jim may be right in his pessimistic assessment.
Trouble is, concentrating on the top 1m to 1m 4f horses leaves you open to the noxious influence of "international stallion values", where you could get the narrow leader ducking the Champion Stakes to run somewhere else, in the Arc or in America perhaps. It’s like having one of the FA cup finalists not turning up at Wembley because they’ve had a better offer to play an exhibition match against Real Madrid in Tokyo.
For a UK-based championship which casual sports fans can follow and get enthused about, the best idea would be the "Stayers’ Triple Crown" plus the Jockey Club in October, together with the warm-up races like the Yorkshire Cup and the Henry II stakes at Sandown. Maybe you could include the Cadran and the Gladiateur as well. Also, the horses are not likely to be rushed off to stud, or to another country, as soon as they’ve won a Group race or two.
The "international option" would be to concentrate on the Global Sprint Challenge, get all the races televised live, even if some of them might be at 4am or whatever, maybe put more money into travel subsidies to encourage more horses to run in "away" races. But I’ve been banging on about the benefits of truly international racing without horses being retired to stud as soon as they’ve snaffled a Group 1, (as happens so often in the 8f to 12f divisions) on forums such as this for years, and few seem to agree with me. Maybe Zorro does, I don’t know.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.