- This topic has 84 replies, 24 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 8 months ago by
.
- Posts
I am not defending the BHA or your right to critisize them but what would you do to change things? It’s all well and good slagging them off but you should give your views on how to change and improve things.
.. I was nice to you before when I told you that I’m not interested in engaging with these people, why would I want to converse with an organisation that has facilitated the introduction of extended opening hours for LBO to get their FOTBs rolling. Have you any idea how much damage gambling addiction causes in society? Poverty, family breakdown, suicide, mental illness .. and on and on.
11.2% of all of Britain’s 284,000 gambling addicts are addicted to FOBTs. It’s not breaking news …
2007
Until the Rabble take their social responsibilities seriously and reel the bookies free-for-all exploitation of vulnerable people in, then I won’t be taking part in any sort of civilized debate with them or any one else over it.
FOTB money doesn’t come into racing, so why are they rigging meetings so there is always racing on the screens in the shops, like today with the meetings staggered over tea-time and into the evening? No balanced individual watches it all and no-one is interested, so why? I’ll tell you why .. it’s to keep the pathologicals in the shops and at the machines .. how the Rabble think that benefits racing I don’t know.
Although moral responsibility is maybe out of their remit and they may have to pass it on to the relevant department, they are indeed responsible. They need to cut the fixtures list, get some proper opening hours for the LBOs and start acting like a serious professional organisation.
Racing for Change – how about not acting like the American Pro-gun lobby.
FOTB money doesn’t come into racing, so why are they rigging meetings so there is always racing on the screens in the shops, like today with the meetings staggered over tea-time and into the evening? No balanced individual watches it all and no-one is interested, so why? I’ll tell you why .. it’s to keep the pathologicals in the shops and at the machines …
Not sure I quite follow, but then it is past my bedtime. If the "pathologicals" will remain glued to the FOBT machines come what come may, couldn’t you put
Loose Women
on the betting shop screens for all the difference it would make to them?
Far rather, I’d have thought the staggered cards are best regarded as offering a day-round alternative for those who inhabit betting shops intent on betting on
something
, but can be readily massaged into choosing live racing as that something if its suitably omnipresent.
To that end, our weekend producer hit upon the splendid idea the other week of re-opening Great Leighs specifically as a "strategic fixture course", for want of a kinder expression, at which weekday mid-morning and Sunday evening fixtures – consisting of the course’s previous allocation of meetings once it’s in a fit enough state again to have them back – could take place.
The quality needn’t be astonishing, and the raceday experience for any that attend might seem exceptionally low-key and a bit unreal (a midday finish? What’s that all about?!?). But simply by virtue of it reintroducing racing on what was an excellent artificial surface (for all the course’s other attendant ills), and doing so
usefully
by clawing back at least some betting shop cash from the blasted machines, I think there’s the germs of a workable idea there.
If the fixture list is to be the size it is (and as laboured on these pages before, I’m more happy for it to be so than many), then let’s at least schedule some of those meetings in such a way as to serve a discernible purpose.
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.
On the historical content theme, the NTRA website in the US have a searchable, free, video database of races and racehorses. If I wanted to show a magnificent race to a novice, say, the Tiznow – Giant’s Causeway clash in the 2000 Breeders Cup, or the world’s most expensive ever jumping error, (Dayjur in the 1990 BC Sprint), I can do, swiftly and easily.
Because of RUK, it’s impossible to do over here – our cultural history has become reduced to the status of a tale around the campfire.
As I’ve said before, in America, I felt that the racecourses wanted me to enjoy myself.
Here, they just want my money
. Same as the media (RUK/RP). No economic enterprise can survive with that attitude in the long term – hence the interminable and tedious navel gazing we’re subjected to each day at the moment.
BHA, you keep saying you’ve got no power and no authority.
Get some
. We’re all behind you. And sort RUK out on this video issue – it’s utterly ridiculous.
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I do agree that in an age where racing is effectively paying to sustain terrestial TV coverage it jars to see actions like the removal of footage from Youtube.
I think there has to be a paradigm shift in the thinking. Racing footage should be viewed as advertising footage for the commodities that are people through the turnstiles and betting revenues (in all its derivatives) NOT as a commodity in itself.
I could never understand the removal of footage from U-Tube. It seems nonsensical to cut off what most companies would see as free advertising.
Those that have escaped like the Derby has had 14,043 views, The Grand National 20,043. Kauto Star just standing there getting filmed even attracted over 2,000 views. Yeats 14,441 views Arkle Red Rum and Desert Orchid have been viewed at least 100,000 times between them.
When you consider that the oldest racing vidoes were put up only 2 to 3 years ago and must have been veiwed collectively millions of times it seems wierd to me they would remove any of them.
Surely the more vidoes up there the more interest it creates which would lead to more people registering to watch live racing.
Here’s a question I’m sending them now:
On reading today’s
Racing Post
, I noticed James Knight claiming ‘Beverley has started selective watering’ and David Ashforth observing that ‘every now and again, horses drawn low are
given
an advantage…to help bookmakers’ profits’. Then, when tuning into C4 racing I hear Nick Luck suggesting that the Beverley clerk has moved the bias somewhere down the A1 this season.
A bookmaker’s odds compiler, an elder statesman of the press room and an Old Etonian aren’t exactly top of the list of suspects for propounding conspiracy theories. Yet they all seem to be observing a phenomenon that, despite being brazenly obvious to just about everyone, is officially denied by Paul Struthers.
As far as I can see this selective watering at Beverley isn’t publicly announced anywhere. The first I invariably hear of it is when my betfair exposure limit kicks in on all the low drawn runners in five furlong sprints well ahead of the off – a phenomenon usually reserved for the most outlandish ‘four duck egg’ coups. This happens about once every four meetings. Clearly somebody is using this undisclosed information to their advantage. Whether it is someone directly involved with the watering themselves or an enterprising morning course walker remains unclear.
Can you clarify the BHA’s policy on the following:
1) What instructions/guidelines have been given to Clerks of the Course with regard to selective watering? What instructions do they have about relaying this information to the public?2) What authority does the BHA have over Clerks of the Course? Can the BHA sack them for gross misconduct for example? If so why do they not excercise this power? Would a clerk of the scales keep his job if he’d sent out horses with weights that were stones different to those published in the racecards?
3) Are clerks of the course allowed to bet on races at their own courses?
4) Why has Paul Scotney not announced an investigation into this apparent corruption where Clerks of the Course can effectively ‘stop’ half the field?
5) Do you realize what a disaster this apparent initiative has been for racing? You may have increased levy on a few races but the whole sport had been brought into disrepute. It now looks very much like a clip joint, with racing’s regulators picking their own customers’ pockets.
- Total Posts 17716
Despite my intial confidence, I’m still waiting for a response to my questions.
- Total Posts 17716
Here’s a question I’m sending them now:
On reading today’s
Racing Post
, I noticed James Knight claiming ‘Beverley has started selective watering’ and David Ashforth observing that ‘every now and again, horses drawn low are
given
an advantage…to help bookmakers’ profits’. Then, when tuning into C4 racing I hear Nick Luck suggesting that the Beverley clerk has moved the bias somewhere down the A1 this season.
A bookmaker’s odds compiler, an elder statesman of the press room and an Old Etonian aren’t exactly top of the list of suspects for propounding conspiracy theories. Yet they all seem to be observing a phenomenon that, despite being brazenly obvious to just about everyone, is officially denied by Paul Struthers.
As far as I can see this selective watering at Beverley isn’t publicly announced anywhere. The first I invariably hear of it is when my betfair exposure limit kicks in on all the low drawn runners in five furlong sprints well ahead of the off – a phenomenon usually reserved for the most outlandish ‘four duck egg’ coups. This happens about once every four meetings. Clearly somebody is using this undisclosed information to their advantage. Whether it is someone directly involved with the watering themselves or an enterprising morning course walker remains unclear.
Can you clarify the BHA’s policy on the following:
1) What instructions/guidelines have been given to Clerks of the Course with regard to selective watering? What instructions do they have about relaying this information to the public?2) What authority does the BHA have over Clerks of the Course? Can the BHA sack them for gross misconduct for example? If so why do they not excercise this power? Would a clerk of the scales keep his job if he’d sent out horses with weights that were stones different to those published in the racecards?
3) Are clerks of the course allowed to bet on races at their own courses?
4) Why has Paul Scotney not announced an investigation into this apparent corruption where Clerks of the Course can effectively ‘stop’ half the field?
5) Do you realize what a disaster this apparent initiative has been for racing? You may have increased levy on a few races but the whole sport had been brought into disrepute. It now looks very much like a clip joint, with racing’s regulators picking their own customers’ pockets.
Expect more of the same today Glenn:
(Firm in places;
Watering 5f course
after racing Saturday; GoingStick 9.3).
Good luck with the questions Glenn .. I was going to ask about executive pay and the bookies fixtures list but decided the lies would be more annoying than satisfaction I would get from asking the questions.
.. there’s no future in exploitation and kidology, racing’s revenue is about to fall off a cliff, I reckon it will be 30% down this time next year and even more the year after when they flog off the Tote to the gangsters.
This
article sums up pretty well what I think.
The 2010 Levy is forecast to produce £94 million, a crash of more than £20 million in a year. Prize money cuts of at least 5 per cent are mooted. And this at a time when owners are going bankrupt and trainers seeing numbers fall. Latest official figures show the racehorse population has dropped 2 per cent – and that was before the recession imposed itself.
.. I mean, wtf !! The people on this forum are supposed to be racing enthusiasts and they just seem to be letting the sport sleep walk into oblivion.
What a load of clue half wits UR, have you ever heard the story of the golden goose. I reckon the rot started with Peter Saville and the bandit racing, it’s been down hill from there really.
I sent them a few idea’s I posted on here a few weeks ago. Robin kindly replied earlier today…..
– Either a cut grass strip or a white line across every racecourse at the 2 furlong pole so we can take a sectional time for Flat racing.
I have passed this on to our racecourse department, i’ll let you know their feedback to this suggestion.
Robin, BHA
A line 2 furlongs out is insufficient for sectional timing.
Please consider at every furlong in the straight (last 5f Chester) and every 2 furlongs on the round course.Can BHA discus with Turftrax what it would cost to resurrect individual horse sectional timing at all UK flat tracks. Can any cost be borne by BHA or by punter subscription?
Can BHA discus with Turftrax what it would cost to resurrect individual horse sectional timing at all UK flat tracks. Can any cost be borne by BHA or by punter subscription?
.. we have passed this on to the Easter Bunny for consideration, mebbe he’ll say AYE, mebbe he’ll say NO. Either way he’ll know if you have been a good boy or or not.
Why are you begging for reasonable information? .. how pathetic, doesn’t it make you want to throw in the towel robert?
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I notice that ITV are now taking it upon themselves to upload X Factor clips to YouTube. They have obviously responded to public and media pressure and adapted their policies to meet demand.
Whilst the market ITV are fighting for a share of is much larger than the RUK equivalent, there are surely lessons to be learned.
Can BHA discus with Turftrax what it would cost to resurrect individual horse sectional timing at all UK flat tracks. Can any cost be borne by BHA or by punter subscription?
.. we have passed this on to the Easter Bunny for consideration, mebbe he’ll say AYE, mebbe he’ll say NO. Either way he’ll know if you have been a good boy or or not.
Why are you begging for reasonable information? .. how pathetic, doesn’t it make you want to throw in the towel robert?
Dave, it is a bit like universal suffrage (the right to vote). England’s Parliament started in the 1200’s in the days of Edward 1. Very few could vote though – to influence what was important to themselves. It took grudging reforms at a glacial pace until 1928 for the "common" man and woman to have an equal right to vote in their own country. A stone in the shoe eventually irritates "authority" enough for something to be done. As I, and many others, have contributed to racing’s finance over the years I want my data rights, important to my enjoyment of racing, to be honoured. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. If you don’t ask and ask and ask, you get treated as a patsy.
I just find it all a bit annoying Robert, it’s a fair point that you are making, I feel that it will fall on deaf ears forever. There’s too much vested interest and old boys club about the whole game.
All the BHA, etc have learned to do over the past five years is how not to promote racing as a mainstream sport imo.
Well, as suggested, I asked my question and received a comprehensive reply. I must say that Robin appears to be working incredibly hard to change the perception of the BHA and I wish him the best of luck in that respect. As ever, though, actions speak louder than words and hopefully we shall see some action at some point over the next few months.
Hello TRF,
Just to let you know, the first batch of questions and answers is now up on the BHA site:
http://www.britishhorseracing.com/goracing/ask-the-bha/
As stated on the page, we are still working on a small selection of answers and these will be posted up upon completion. I hope you will understand that some of the questions have required intensive research, but as mentioned before we are committed to answering every question.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this project, it has been very useful for us and we have had so many great ideas to take on board as a result. Hopefully it has/will be useful for you too.
Robin.
Hello TRF,
Just to let you know, the first batch of questions and answers is now up on the BHA site:
http://www.britishhorseracing.com/goracing/ask-the-bha/
As stated on the page, we are still working on a small selection of answers and these will be posted up upon completion. I hope you will understand that some of the questions have required intensive research, but as mentioned before we are committed to answering every question.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this project, it has been very useful for us and we have had so many great ideas to take on board as a result. Hopefully it has/will be useful for you too.
Robin.
Robin,
BHA Reply:
Why does every course in Britain not report accurate distances? Some courses are better than others where at least the say something like "moved rail out 12yds at the top bend" some don’t even bother to mention it. Shouldn’t every course state clearly where they have moved the rails and the new distances and shouldn’t they do this before the day of the race on there website or at the 48hr declaration stage?
Clerks of the Course look to include any relevant rail movement details alongside their going report information that is sent to Weatherbys before every meeting (as required by BHA General Instruction 3.2 Para 29). These details (as well as e.g. watering plans) are particularly beneficial to connections (and the betting public) when sent out in a pre – fixture press release in the run up to staging a two or more day meeting. Racecourses do highlight any course movements – see Going details on BHA Website for up to the minute course change info. However, overall the Safety of horse and rider comes a long way first so can’t always necessarily do this at 48 hrs decs stage as rail movements can depend on weather, resultant false patches of ground etc.The questioner also asked about clearly stating new distances. This part is ignored in your answer. The punter needs to know the distance the race was run at and such data is of high value even after the race is run. If the distance has been pre-announced then changed late on, how is the punter to know that the corrected distance is now incorrect?
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