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August 5th: BHA announces cap of 1.400 fixtures in 2012
November 17th: BHA announces 1,456 fixtures in 2012.
So who does run racing?
Once again racing buries its head in the sand to ignore the economic reality and stages an unsustainable number of fixtures.
As The Horsemens Group were party to the fixture list negotiations I now hope they are not going to start complaining when races fall below tariff?
Or will they do a PJA and complain they were not properly included in the negotiations?
And, what extra money there is for Prize Money will be going to Higher Grade races and unpopular flat races
16/11/2011 – Prize Money to Receive Majority of Extra Levy Board Expenditure in 2012
The Levy Board’s contribution to prize money will rise by £4.2m in 2012 as part of an overall increase in expenditure of £5m.
The vast majority of the extra £4.2m will be focused on improving the race programme, particularly on the Flat, with a view to ensuring that field sizes are maintained or improved and that higher quality racing is suitably underpinned. In total, £5.7m of the Levy Board’s £38.2m prize money contribution next year will be specifically for higher quality races.
Racecourses will benefit from an increase of 33% in the allocation to the Board’s Fixture Incentive Scheme, which provides funding to racecourses which stage fixtures in certain winter slots. The allocation to the Scheme increases from £2.1m this year to £2.8m in 2012.
The Board agreed that, in the light of the agreement of the terms of the 51st Levy Scheme and taking into account current estimates of 50th and 51st Scheme Levy yields, it was appropriate to increase total expenditure in 2012 to £65.1m compared to 2011’s budget of £60.1m.
Levy Board Website
Paul , am blue in the face saying it , THE BOOKIES run racing as things stand, this may change if Paul B grasps the nettle , but with this lot , the bookies rule
It made me laugh to see the fixtures changed in a flash
anyway lets enjoy the class 6 fest , because that’s whats going to be on offer the majority of the time
regards
Ricky
Ricky, your Great White Hope, won’t change anything. What the Bookies want to pay for is not the same as the BHA wish to sell…..
You must know that?
As someone who thinks Harriet Harman had a point the other day, when I walk down East Ham High Street, the punters in the dozen or so betting shops aren’t betting on the Class 6 races at Kempton, Southwell or wherever.
They are playing the FOBTs and do so from dawn to dusk and beyond.
The pact running racing is between the bookmakers and the racecourses. In exchange for copious levels of sponsorship and support, the tracks agree to race as often as the bookies want.
IF there was no payment for staging twilight racing, would Kempton and Wolverhampton even bother? It’s well known that the bookies like to keep the shops "busy" with continuous racing but in my neck of the woods, it’s the FOBTs that keep the shops open.
There is of course the argument that only the bookmaking chains can afford to pay the leases for these shops and without them, they would sit empty and I can see the argument from the local Councils and property owners’ perspective but let’s not kid ourselves. Twilight or BERS racing as we should call it, is shop fodder, that’s all.
I would have a total limit of 1,000 fixtures and pay any course that wants to be mothballed for five years with a promise of more fixtures once times improve and the horse population recovers.
The Irish seem happy with two or three novice or beginner chases each week yet we put on a dozen and wonder why we don’t get the runners.
And, what extra money there is for Prize Money will be going to Higher Grade
Overall great news about the list size. However, I’d partuclarly like to know who exactly was responsible the decision above about the destination of the extra £5m.
Paul , am blue in the face saying it , THE BOOKIES run racing as things stand, this may change if Paul B grasps the nettle , but with this lot , the bookies rule
Ricky
I’m not going to disagree with you.
I should, in hindsight, have omitted the question mark as it was a rhetorical question.
August 5th: BHA announces cap of 1.400 fixtures in 2012
November 17th: BHA announces 1,456 fixtures in 2012.
So who does run racing?
Once again racing buries its head in the sand to ignore the economic reality and stages an unsustainable number of fixtures.
As The Horsemens Group were party to the fixture list negotiations I now hope they are not going to start complaining when races fall below tariff?
Or will they do a PJA and complain they were not properly included in the negotiations?
In fairness Paul, the 56 "extra" fixtures appear to be leasehold, with guaranteed non-levy prizemoney (min £25000 per meeting) that’s been agreed with the Horsemens Group.
Pete , of course I know it , however one subtle difference , our new man is quite skilled and experienced at revenue negotiations , with nasty bookies that do not want to pay up
So hold on to your horses , its not game over just yet
Cav…as always correct , but its still a climb down just the same
regards
Ricky
Available to trainers in paper form on the 17th of December. Won’t be on the BHA racing admin site until last week of December!
The programme book for 2012 is apparently being given to trainers one week at a time, three weeks in advance. How on earth is a trainer supposed to prepare a horse for a race when he doesn’t know what the races actually are more than three weeks ahead?
How many jumps fixtures are lost each year due to bad weather and not re-staged – could the lost fixtures not re-staged be offered to the AW tracks who could probably fill the card with a few weeks notice?
How many jumps fixtures are lost each year due to bad weather and not re-staged – could the lost fixtures not re-staged be offered to the AW tracks who could probably fill the card with a few weeks notice?
That would be far too sensible. They postpone fixtures in Ireland but, of course, we always get the standard response that it is much easier to do so in Ireland because there are far fewer fixtures (sometimes just one a day) so it is easier to reschedule meetings that fall foul of the weather.
It seems crazy the system in this country, especially as a course is often raceable the day after a meeting has been abandoned. Logistics is always given as the reason why a meeting can’t be staged a day or two later.
It has happened in recent years, of course, that a meeting has been run a few days later (Huntingdon and Newbury have sometimes done it) but it seems to be very much the exception rather than the rule.
Big races are sometimes salvaged by being run at another course the next week.
In bad winters, of course, they do sometimes announce a batch of replacement meetings but it’s amazing how many times that some of these are also lost to the weather, no doubt meaning the courses lose out financially twice.
One time I remember when a fixture was successfully transferred at the last minute was back in a February or March of the early 1980s when Sedgefield was unraceable because of frost but the meeting was transferred up the road to Stockton, or Teesside Park, as it used to be known, because the course was "in remarkably good condition".
One of my racing regrets is that I never got to Stockton before it closed abruptly soon afterwards. The first I heard about the closure was on a Radio 2 sportsdesk news item when George Hamilton announced that the course was closing "immediately". Attempts to reopen it failed.
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