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So after all the RFC bull the flat starts with a flourish at -wait for it-Catterick that unless you count the AW meetings at Lingfield and Kempton on the 26th. So this is really going to set the season alight and of course followed by about six weeks of scrubby single or double meetings until it all goes completely mad with 6 meetings a day.
Flat season in earnest doesn’t start till Guineas weekend. Spare a thought for the jumps lads. They wait over 5 months for their season to start proper. Nearly there boys!
The start of the Flat is nearly – but not quite – right this year
Having the revamped Lincoln Meeting on the first weekend in April seems an eminently sensible idea, and there it should remain forever
The First Weekend in April = The Start of the Flat
: a memorable juxtaposition
But as you say, why oh why Catterick, Leicester and Musselburgh before the ‘big day’
These run-of-the-mill meetings should commence in the week following the Lincoln, with the aim being two turf Flat and one NH per weekday throughout April. As it is we can expect the usual rather messy and seemingly random mix of Turf, AW and NH
AW, bar the traditional once-turf early-season Kempton meetings, should cease after the Winter Derby last hoorah
bar the traditional once-turf early-season Kempton meetings, should cease after the Winter Derby last hoorah
Hi Drone
How I agree with you when is there going to be a proper AW season instead of stuttering on all year.At last Lingfield managed to have a few turf races last season but even then couldn’t resist chucking in a couple on the polytrack.Even on NH meetings managed a bumper on AW a surface they’ll never race on. Hardly what bumpers were intended forI’d rather have a couple of understated little flat meetings before the big kick off, gets rid of some of the cobwebs!
I don’t know why Lingfield don’t just get rid of their turf course altogether. It’s not exactly the most used resource in the world is it?
I don’t agree with scrapping AW meetings once the turf gets underway, some horses don’t act on turf & we should give them their chances I think. Although not too many thanks.
Anthonycutt said
don’t agree with scrapping AW meetings once the turf gets underway, some horses don’t act on turf & we should give them their chances I think. Although not too many thanks.Well well well how on earth did they manage before we had AW tracks???
Anthonycutt said
don’t agree with scrapping AW meetings once the turf gets underway, some horses don’t act on turf & we should give them their chances I think. Although not too many thanks.Well well well how on earth did they manage before we had AW tracks???
I don’t know, go to the States (or the Uhu factory) probably.
Then again, we do have AW courses now so it’s not really a relevant question.
I don’t agree with scrapping AW meetings once the turf gets underway, some horses don’t act on turf & we should give them their chances I think.
Quite agree. I mentioned on another thread a while back that Southwell’s Fibresand is particularly under-used during the summer – four fixtures in three months, if memory serves.
Cold comfort for both inveterate Fibresanders plus – in the case of a snuff-dry summer – that tranche of soft-ground animals that can also operate on slow sand.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
But as you say, why oh why Catterick, Leicester and Musselburgh before the ‘big day’
…"Because they put in for them", would be the flippant answer. As always, any jumping venue could have outbid them to keep the calendar turf Flat-free that side of Donny. They didn’t.
This fixation with commencing the turf Flat season with a major event has long since baffled this onlooker. There is no precedent for it in National Hunt, where the first event even halfway recognised as big, namely the Swinton Hurdle, is invariably preceded by as much as a fortnight of low-grade fare; or in Point-to-Pointing, where the Lord Ashton Of Hyde at Dunthrop comes all of two months in now.
Taken as a whole, the turf Flat season appears to this semi-trained eye to have a measure more narrative to it than its jumping counterpart, notwithstanding just a couple of days’ worth of a low-key prelude. It’s nothing that’s deserving of anywhere like the volume of disquiet it engenders.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I, for one, would be glad of the break, GC, but this year, there are eleven AW meetings at the Sandpit from the beginning of May to the end of August, including Ladies Night and Miss Newark.
Then the traditional break through September, allowing the regulars to put the finishing touches on their tanks ready for the winter season.
Six of the fixtures are classed as Summer Music Evenings. Black Sabbath (with Ozzy Osborne), the original line up of Cream; Kiss (complete with make up); Led Zeppelin (unplugged) and the Deftones are thought to be five of the acts*
There is plenty of jumps action too. It’s a busy old summer in Rolleston.
*I might have made this bit up.
It’s a busy old summer in Rolleston.
Heaven forbid it were ever otherwise, Max. Heaven forbid. Hope to catch you there again at some point (having been there for some Flat on January 9th and missed you completely!)
*I might have made this bit up.
Heh-heh. What a pity.
I could have told you for nowt that Led Zeppelin were more likely to be Market Rasen fans, though – hence "she’s buying a stairway to Kesteven"…
I’ll get me cloak.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
…"Because they put in for them", would be the flippant answer. As always, any jumping venue could have outbid them to keep the calendar turf Flat-free that side of Donny. They didn’t.
If the start of the Flat had always opened with three days of gaff action then I could accept it. But of course this wasn’t the case: it was three days at Doncaster and jolly good too
Now as mentioned I have no problem with the move to a two-dayer at Donny over the first weekend in April and it melds well with the Rosebery meet at Kempton. The ‘narrative’ starts there and then
The bidding free-for-all allowing racecourses to bid for fixtures more or less when they like with no thought given to a days/weeks/months/ overall structure other than setting a limit on number of slots available is not something I agree with. There should be a set of provisos in place, the aims of which should be to ensure balance, and in some cases plain old common sense: in this case ‘Bidding for Flat turf fixtures before the Lincoln Meeting is not allowed’
Cream at Rolleston, my heart skipped a beat there for a moment Max, you devil you
Cream at Rolleston, my heart skipped a beat there for a moment Max, you devil you
Sorry, Mr D. That was cruel of me…
GC, I missed a couple of meetings in mid-January for one reason or another though I have had my haircut since last time!! Sorry I missed you.
The Miss Newark night is something else, if you fancy it – it’s become quite the social event round here.
This was the meeting we discussed last year where five hundred people were lined up watching the girls onstage like kids at a Sooty concert and the remaining ten were lining the paddock assessing the sand shufflers. Summer racing, huh.
On the subject of Southwell, really enjoyed watching today’s racing from there.
I’m surprised their hurdles aren’t advertised as ‘fixed brush’. And it’s always a laugh seeing a tractor dragging the fences away.
Almost forgot: after today I’m thinking about writing a book. It’s going to be called ‘Great Mysteries Of Racing’ & chapter one is:
How does a horse with form figures of PPR-PR start a race NOT being the rank outsider? Sure enough he added another R to the resume at the first.
Almost forgot: after today I’m thinking about writing a book. It’s going to be called ‘Great Mysteries Of Racing’ & chapter one is:
How does a horse with form figures of PPR-PR start a race NOT being the rank outsider?
I presume this is Granny Kanzi you’re talking about.
She’s been frightful in British Point-to-Points for a couple of seasons now, but I suspect she went off at shorter odds than you’d have expected having been moved by the owner-breeder to a professional yard – and a well-respected, reasonably in-form one at that.
The rest you know. The Marriott family must be tearing their hair out with her, as Granny Kanzi’s half-siblings Granoski Gala and Brown Cockle have been prolific Point winners over the years and the dam Great Granny Smith was as well. Suppose there’s always one bad apple…
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Almost forgot: after today I’m thinking about writing a book. It’s going to be called ‘Great Mysteries Of Racing’ & chapter one is:
How does a horse with form figures of PPR-PR start a race NOT being the rank outsider?
I presume this is Granny Kanzi you’re talking about.
She’s been frightful in British Point-to-Points for a couple of seasons now, but I suspect she went off at shorter odds than you’d have expected having been moved by the owner-breeder to a professional yard – and a well-respected, reasonably in-form one at that.
The rest you know. The Marriott family must be tearing their hair out with her, as Granny Kanzi’s half-siblings Granoski Gala and Brown Cockle have been prolific Point winners over the years and the dam Great Granny Smith was as well. Suppose there’s always one bad apple…
gc
I’d give her a run or two on the flat. It seems pretty daft to enter a horse over jumps that clearly isn’t interested. Actually, what I’d like to do is take a video of that race & show it to the animal rights people who claim horses are forced to to do it.
If it don’t wanna, it aint gonna.
If it don’t wanna, it aint gonna.
At which point they’ll counter that it shouldn’ta been asked in the first place. These people will never not claim the last word.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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