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Just read on the RP site that Ascot are to introduce a 45 minute cut-off point for reserves at the Shergar Cup meeting.
I do hope this will be a one off and the powers-that-be don’t introduce this across the board in the future.
Surely most punters study a race the evening before or on the morning of the race. How can not knowing the actual make up of the field until 45 minutes before the off be of any benefit?
Definitely a one off designed to ensure full fields for the team competition and to avoid the posibility of bringing a jockey halfway round the world for a non runner.
There are two reserves for each race and the horses have to attend the meeting so as to be available to run – if not used, the sponsor pays £500 to the owners of the reserve horse.
I’m planning to enter one for the Shergar Cup and won’t mind at all if we end up travelling down the road to Ascot and picking up a monkey for no effort!
But without the payment, there would be no incentive to be a reserve for any race outside of a Group 1 and that alone will prevent the spread of this system to everyday races. Given the advance warning needed to get a horse fitted with racing plates and transported to the track, anything later than 9 a.m. on the day of the race would be impractical.
AP
Nothing to do with Blar’s claim that Saddam had weapons capable of blowing us all up within 45 minutes of his deciding to do so, then?
AP – is the £500 in addition to travelling/staff expenses? If not then I’m not sure it would be worth the effort for a lot of horses/connections?
So far as I can tell, the £500 is the all you get, and I agree it wouldn’t be worth it if the journey was longer, but if you get into the race, there’s a total of £35,000 on offer with prize money for all ten runners.
There aren’t many opportunities for a horse rated in the low 80’s to run for that sort of money, so we’ll take our chance. The 2M race regularly seems to be the least competitive of the six contests.
AP
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