- This topic has 8 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Posts
Its been discussed on this forum before that racecourse can now decide on their own fixtures resulting in stupid clashes, but surely letting Hexham and Musselburgh race on the same day tomorrow is just ridiculous? Trainers are always saying there isn’t enough racing in the north of Britain but here we have two fixtures at the same time.
Its been discussed on this forum before that racecourse can now decide on their own fixtures resulting in stupid clashes, but surely letting Hexham and Musselburgh race on the same day tomorrow is just ridiculous? Trainers are always saying there isn’t enough racing in the north of Britain but here we have two fixtures at the same time.
On a pedantic point, even under the old rules they could have still raced on the same day as the two courses are over 50 miles (91 miles) apart.
Normally I’m the first to shout when there are geographical clashes but I don’t think this would be one to go to war on, especially if you look at the fixtures in detail as both have been framed differently so should be looking at different horses.
It takes me 40 minutes to get to Musselburgh and about 2 hours 40 minutes to get to Hexham. If you lived in London it’s like saying Huntingdon clashes with Doncaster. From the point of view of keeping up to date with the dozen courses I like to watch, yes it’s a pain, but otherwise there will probably be no more than 100 who would have gone to both courses, if that many.
Hexham hasn’t filled well, but Musselburgh has and that suggests the continuing heavy ground is a problem at Hexham rather than anything else.
Rob
I see you’re from Croydon Phil, so can perhaps be forgiven for suffering from ‘North of Watford’ syndrome
As Paul mentions Hexham to Musselburgh is approximately 90 miles; and to put this into some sort of perspective for you London to Birmingham is approx. 110 miles and London to Bristol 115 miles
I am reminded of a football match some years ago between Plymouth Argyle and Bristol City/Rovers which some hack described as being a ‘local derby’ despite these towns being about 115 miles apart too
carrot-crunching starts at West Ealing
Whilst taking heed of Pauls point, its hard to understand why this has been allowed
Racing in the North is a bit of a mixed bag , I for one am astonished these 2 fixtures are allowed to happen on the same day
good planning it is not
Ricky
ricky
We seem to be getting into a North/South argument. I can’t imagine a clash between say Newton Abbot and Fontwell would raise any eyebrows, but it’s not that much different from Musselburgh and Hexham.
Kelso attempted to pull together all the relevant parties for a planning meeting last spring. For whatever reason the BHA’s planning department couldn’t or wouldn’t attend.
Incidentally Musselburgh have a two day fixture followed by a Saturday fixture at Kelso. There has been no problem with field sizes at these meetings and I can’t envisage any problem with crowd sizes.
Nick Alexander commented in his blog that the reason Hexham are suffering small fields today may well be the abysmal prize mnoeythey are offering. As Nick says, trainer s appear to be voting thier feet. Compare their prize money with that offered by Musselburgh over the two days(at least one £10000 pot at each meeting this season) and that at Kelso tomorrow.
Rob
Rob , good post
No north south issue at all , my gripe is this , I am a big fan of Musselburgh , they do their level best to have good fare and decent prizes , as racing in the north seems to be sparse at times , I just thought it would have been better to let them stand alone
Just a personal gripe that’s all , I have been there a few times and loved it , they do try hard to keep all parties happy , customers included
Ricky
A brief look at next year’s fixture list reveals plenty of seemingly crazy clashes of meetings.
One of the worst examples is the day when both Redcar and Sedgefield are due to race on the same afternoon.
Leaving aside the fact that one is a Flat meeting and the other is a jumps fixture, you would think that it is ludicrous for both those north-eastern courses to be racing on the same day.
We can only assume that both courses must have been fully aware and were quite happy to race on the same day, even though there must be at least some of the potential crowds who would have liked to have gone to both meetings if they were on separate days, not to mention racing professionals and, gulp, local bookmakers.
At least when Doncaster and York clash, or sometimes even Newcastle and Hexham, one of the meetings is an evening card.
I don’t think this would be one to go to war on, especially if you look at the fixtures in detail as both have been framed differently so should be looking at different horses.
…to say nothing of the two courses in question being so different in orientation and topography. There won’t be many out there that would be specialists at both. A direct clash between Hexham and Newcastle would have been more barking.
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.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.