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Paul.
Now the RFC wants to inspire more people to come racing i think it is time to have a special race meeting which would have all of our different types of races in one day.
Why not have an afternoon meeting at Lingfield,Southwell or Kempton with the following.
2 Flat Turf Races
2 Flat All Weather Races
1 Hurdle
1 Steeplechase
2 Trotting Races
Maybe 1 Shetland Pony Grand National and 2 Pony Races over 6f and 1m1f.
The bottom races would be an ideal platform to go into schools and give children a chance to explore being a jockey and learn to ride and be allowed to ride in a race using somethiing like an interschool championships.
By having all of the various races on the same day we can showcase all that we have in the world of horse racing and bring all the different codes together.
I do hope this has given you food for thought and please could you see what the RFC people think about it, I do the know that this idea will probably get me being called various names, some positive but a lot more will no doubt be negative.
Thank you
Neil.
I have noticed a few pony races for younger riders being held at race meetings (Musselburgh held one end of last year with a few racing ‘names’ in the line up as I recall). Unfortunately i didn’t hang around to watch it so I’m not sure how many actually did but it must be great experience for aspiring jockeys.
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Comparatively few people hang around for the final official race on a card, let alone a pony race, so it seems almost defeatist to stage something like that after the ‘main event’ has been concluded.
Speedway teams do something very similar whereby they allow their younger riders to practice following the completion of a league or cup meeting – I always think it a shame that they have to compete in an ever-emptying stadium when a few laps prior to the feature contest would surely be more beneficial (racing on a freshly prepared track, in front of a reasonable crowd etc).
Your idea is a good one, Neil, but the only problem would be that such an initiative would be open to only three courses – Kempton, Lingfield and Southwell. The latter would seem to be the logical choice given its more central location, but are facilities there up to withstanding bumper family crowds (I’d have thought families would be the major target with ‘showcase’ cards such as those proposed)?
Perhaps run the pony races between conventional races. with a bit of thought and organistation, There is enough time.
The hardened race fan will carry on as normal and probably ignore them , the "new" people may be interested.
Trotting! hmmmm, put them on last, so I can beat the traffic
Comparatively few people hang around for the final official race on a card, let alone a pony race, so it seems almost defeatist to stage something like that after the ‘main event’ has been concluded.
I must be amongst the sad few as I’ve stayed behind at Perth, on more than one occasion, and at Newcastle to see the end of card pony races. I’m thinking along the lines that I might spot tomorrow’s potentially smart apprentices and conditionals before everyone else! Of course it helps that the traffic will be mostly off and away afterwards as well….
Rob
Neil – thanks for that. I’ve passed it on to the Racing For Change team (info@racingenterpriseslimited.com).
Thanks Paul.
Out of interest what did you think of my idea to have about 4 types of racing on the same day?
Personally, I love the Sandown mixed card and think it works well so I see no reason why your suggestion wouldn’t work incorporating the All Weather as well. If it was at Lingfield or Kempton I’d almost certainly go if the races were good enough (no offence against Southwell, they’re just closer to home).
With regards trotting, I’m not remotely interested personally and moreover I doncan’t see that we’d authorise trotting races to be run on the same card as a flat or NH meeting, as it’s not regulated by us and would have no benefit to racing.
I’ll post of Racing For Change’s views when I’ve got them. In the meantime, it might be worth sending your idea (perhaps less the trotting) to Amy Starkey at Kempton, as she’s inovative and open to ideas.
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