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It is almost the end of September and there is no sign of next year’s fixtures. Very helpful for any business making diaries in time for Christmas!
I appreciate it is a more complicated process now with some fixtures owned by racecourses and some by the BHA – but isn’t this another fail for racing? It is ridiculous there are no fixtures out by now.
They must know Cork and it looks like the 2024 flat season is going to be shaken up a bit..
Here’s an extract from the email sent to me yesterday regarding my Newmarket Badge renewal….
‘There are two key changes to the fixture list for 2024 at Newmarket. The first will be the Thursday of the Spring fixture moving to the Sunday, to create an exciting new weekend of racing.
Secondly, the final Friday and Saturday in July (this year on the 27th & 28th July) will no longer take place at Newmarket. Working with the BHA and having looked at the spread of fixtures that weekend, it was felt the fixtures would better serve racing elsewhere, and as such they would be transferred to Sandown and Chester, respectively. We are working on arranging reciprocals with these courses and will update once we know if this is possible.’
Expect lots of changes going on around all UK courses for 2024.
JacThings turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...I suppose the issue of which meetings on Saturday are “Premier” and which have to be outside the two hour window has contributed to the delay.
Sure I read a few weeks ago there would be a delay to this but can’t remember the reasons as to why.
The more I know the less I understand.
There’s only one fixture I attend regularly that would be outside of the premiersation bracket and that’s the family fun day at Chester back end of July/early august on a Sunday.
The rest of my racing tends to be the dog **** nobody else attends at flesh pots like Southwell, uttoxeter, Doncaster (jumps)
I’ll make the odd trip to Cheltenham/aintree but until they start becoming more reasonably priced it won’t be for the festivals.
So the smaller tracks shouldn’t find it too difficult to form a business plan based on receiving their fixtures a few weeks later than planned.
Perth have gone down from fifteen meetings to thirteen
They have lost a Saturday card due to premierisation and a two day meeting in august as there is going to be a longer break during the summer for the jumps.
But they have an October fixture(22nd). I don’t believe they have ever had a meeting that late in the year.
I saw a feature about Perth on RTV a few years ago. I am sure someone connected to the track said he would like to have a fixture or two in October but it was not practical to race there at that time of year. I wonder what has changed?
Premierisation cuts to the chase by asking the big question – “What is a race meeting for? To serve the racegoers or the off-course betting industry? Because it can’t always be both.”
In midweek, apart from the big meetings it’s not hard to answer.
But perfectly profitable meetings on a Saturday are about to be axed or hideously mutated into morning/twilight, racegoer unfriendly horrors.
Would you pay to attend a sporting event staged at an unsociable time to suit the off-course betting industry?
I wouldn’t and I won’t.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"What do you class as unsociable hours Ian?
Is there any word on the street or the grapevine that we’re going to be looking at meetings starting at 9am? Which is what would be required to avoid the 2-4pm premiersation window!
To be honest I’d quite like the idea of an early Saturday morning meeting! Watching a wincanton or a Kelso early doors Saturday morning would be a lovely way to start a weekend imo.
I understand it probably wouldn’t appeal to many of an average Saturday race goer as there’s a substantial portion of them who want a bevvy when they go racing. But it could certainly help bring racing to a wider audience at home.
The barrage of programmes which have tv chefs on them at that time in the morning is beyond tedious now!
And I’m personally all for a greater programme of Sunday evening racing as well. It’s better than antiques roadshow and countryfile or a 1970’s James Bond movie.
I would class as “unsociable hours” any start time that inconveniences racegoers, many of who travel distance to get to meetings.
Race meetings start and end at their current times for sound historical reasons.
Too early or too late a start will ruin the whole “day at the races” experience for many.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Sound historical reasons such as not being allowed to serve ale until midday for example!?
I completely agree that having an early morning meeting won’t suit those who largely go the races to get sloshed. But there are a vocal proportion of people on here (yourself included) who sneer and jeer at the “sockless brigade” who would rather they weren’t there anyway.
Having a meeting at 10am Saturday morning is likely to attract the committed racing fan who’s travelled 10/20/30 minutes and would enjoy being able to take in a local meeting and then go home in time for the group and grade meeting.
“But there are a vocal proportion of people on here (yourself included) who sneer and jeer at the “sockless brigade” who would rather they weren’t there anyway.”
This is true, but I’m not blind to the notion that many meetings nowadays wouldn’t be financially viable without them.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I would not be interested in attending a meeting which started at something like 11am.
It has nothing to do with the drink issue either. I often do not have a drink on the racecourse due to the poor quality on offer and the extortionate prices. If I do have a pint it is usually only one.
Even at a local track like Haydock or Chester, I would have to leave at something like 8.30am to get there in time – and even earlier for something further away. I concede that is not impossible but do I really want to make an early start to go to a moderate quality meeting and for it to be all over by about 1.30pm? Only to then be travelling home when the good racing is on.
I think I could find something better to do on a Saturday morning.
With a clear run, I could be at a couple of different courses in 20-25 minutes but I doubt I’d bother going to a morning meeting. The usual early afternoon start times stagger the arrivals but if starting mid to late morning you are going to get most people turning up last minute and a lot of traffic issues because people are in general not going to get to the course at 9am or earlier.
Perhaps if they laid on a reasonably priced and good quality breakfast I could be persuaded but we all know how likely that is.
Can’t imagine it would be that popular with stable staff either, I am sure they have to get up early enough as it is. At best I think you’d end up with bookie fodder meetings like with the dogs that seem to start at about 8am these days.
Well you might not like it lads, and I totally take on board your points of view. But it seems like the racecourses are largely going to be faced with a simple choice for some fixtures. Move the start times to a less than ideal point or lose them entirely.
Is there any word on when they might release the fixtures? We’re essentially 2 months away from being on the cusp of the new fixtures being utilised.
You’re probably not wrong, TC, but the fact the fixture list still isn’t out suggests that various racecourses aren’t going down without a fight.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Does anyone have an idea as to what the average gap between meetings is for each course?
In my minds eye there’s hardly a fortnight goes by without racing taking place at the Chester’s/Doncaster’s/Ascot’s during the summer months. Uttoxeter is my local track and they seem to race every couple of weeks all year round.
The all weathers are hammered year round.
There isn’t a racecourse in the country that couldn’t lose at least one fixture per year to create and overall better product for both the race going punter and the Saturday afternoon in front of the box whilst consuming his weight in hob nobs sat in his undies type!
The BHA and the levy have been hamstrung by their own previous failures to ever consider a thick cull of fixtures.
Jac
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