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If anyone’s in any doubt how poorly served racing has been today by the BHA look no further than the off times of the 4 meetings. It was quite clear a couple of days ago that it was highly likely that race clashes would occur unless some preventative measures took place.
There were no late abandonments to contend with but what did the BHA do to avoid these race clashes? F All!
We started the afternoon with races at the 4 meetings all encompassed within a 10 or 15 minute period followed up by a 20 minute gap till the next set of clashes.
We even ended up the afternoon by the two remaining meetings having races run at exactly the same time (3.55) followed by a 30 minute gap.
When racing needs all the levy it can get it really does beggar belief.The BHA get the blame for a lot of things which are outside their control, but I’d have to agree that today’s timings (allied to those in Ireland which also clashed) were absolutely disgraceful and someone, somewhere should have had the foresight to stop it happening.
Not really rocket science at all:-
Hun 12:15
Wct 12:25
Wol 12:35
Hun 12:40
Kem 12:50
Wct 13:00
Wol 13:10
Hun 13:15
Kem 13:25
Wct 13:35
Wol 13:45
Hun 13:50
Kem 14:00
Wct 14:10
Wol 14:20
Hun 14:25
Kem 14:35
Wct 14:45
Wol 14:55
Hun 15:00
Kem 15:10
Wct 15:20
Wol 15:30
Hun 15:35
Kem 15:45
Wct 15:55Allowing ten minutes per jump race and five per flat race and still maintaining 35 minute gaps.
Paul you’ve got the job.
As raised many times before this is not thought worthy of being centrally controlled apart from being a part of someones job from Monday to Friday (and presumably not Xmas or Bank Hols either)
Wincanton overlapped with Huntingdon at least twice and Huntingdon with Kempton at least four times with a huge impact on turnover in the shops and then dead space of up to 20 minutes before Wolver got going.
Paul you’ve got the job.
Gee thanks Richard – perhaps we ought to get working on that spreadsheet?
As raised many times before this is not thought worthy of being centrally controlled apart from being a part of someones job from Monday to Friday (and presumably not Xmas or Bank Hols either)
I wonder if they actually recruited somebody in the job that was advertised several weeks ago …. if they did it’s a shame they didn’t start before Christmas.
Not really rocket science at all:-
Hun 12:15
Wct 12:25
Wol 12:35
Hun 12:40
Kem 12:50
Wct 13:00
Wol 13:10
Hun 13:15
Kem 13:25
Wct 13:35
Wol 13:45
Hun 13:50
Kem 14:00
Wct 14:10
Wol 14:20
Hun 14:25
Kem 14:35
Wct 14:45
Wol 14:55
Hun 15:00
Kem 15:10
Wct 15:20
Wol 15:30
Hun 15:35
Kem 15:45
Wct 15:55Allowing ten minutes per jump race and five per flat race and still maintaining 35 minute gaps.
I expect that took you 5 or 10 mins to knock up Paul
yet the entire brains trust of the BHA, Paul Roy, Nic Coward, Ruth Quinn, Tony Goodhew, Jon Ryan,Paul Struthers etc failed to even bring the subject up.Rather than be the responsibility of a day of the races co-ordinator, a revised schedule such as above could and should have been implemented well in advance of the days racing to appear in Boxing Days papers, don’t think even Andrew Franklin could quibble at Kemptons races being off 5 mins later particularly if it was for the good of racing.
You’ve got to wonder whether the BHA’s brains trust were completely unaware of the situation or they were but couldn’t be arsed to do anything about it, which is worse?
I had to watch on RUK yesterday and the schedule ruined the coverage of a very special day for racing.
[b:kdf1894g]“The two main groups in racing are the trainers, jockeys, owners and breeders and then the racecourse owners” – Paul Roy[/b:kdf1894g]
John Gosden sings a similar song.
No mention of punters until begging bowl time comes along, then suddenly we’re the solution to everything, the mugs and their hundred million to annually bankroll the incompetence.
Unfortunately for the people who pander to and participate in the incompetence, the “mugs” are now largely levy free on the exchanges or stuffing their giro’s into bookmaker machines.
Headless chickens scrambling for corn, hilarious really. Expect it to become even more desperate in ’10.
What you have to bear in mind is that there is us and there is THEM.
THEY want us to pay them handsomely to work a few days a week or even a few days a year, with early clocking off the name of the game – the lifestyle of country gentlemen. Anything outside those hours is outside their remit. The chances of THEM taking five minutes off over christmas to fix things is simply out of the question.
Meanwhile, we are expected to turn out at all hours in all weathers, bank holidays and Good Fridays included for extra servings of gruel.
The opening salvo of The Lost Decade was fired by Peter Savill when he claimed that there were ways of exerting pressure on near minimum wage tote staff to make them get out of their beds on Millenium Day and keep the 24/7 show on the road. It ends with not a single member of the far from minimum wage Rabble willing to do five minutes work at a time inconvenient to them. That sums things up perfectly.
great stuff Cav and Glen , one thing though these roulette machines are spreading like wildfire , my local Ladbrokes which I wander into a few times a year , its been divided into 2 rooms, one has a partition which allows it to have 4 more FOBT , so now all the habituees are roulette players mostly , as the young manager told me , !! nobody bets on horse racing any more !!
More Dross boys your plan is working
Ricky
Slightly wrong thread, but I don’t like creating new ones unless necessary.
I only realised in the last hour that Kempton isn’t on the telly today. Hadn’t checked before, because I just assumed it was. Having said that, I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the Christmas Hurdle had moved to the Boxing Day card. It ought to have clicked then . . .
Slightly wrong thread, but I don’t like creating new ones unless necessary.
I only realised in the last hour that Kempton isn’t on the telly today. Hadn’t checked before, because I just assumed it was. Having said that, I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the Christmas Hurdle had moved to the Boxing Day card. It ought to have clicked then . . .
The Christmas Hurdle has been on Boxing Day for a few years now and the BBC – that well known non-racing channel, had it for a year or two. It was a Sunday meeting which only has racing on C4 about once a year at the Open Meeting and doubtless there were scheduling issues with it being Christmas. It is a notorious bad time for terrestrial tv of any kind, but sport is a non-starter. I’ve been using the digital channel all day as there is nowt but a load of rubbish on the terrestrials. That is not to defend the decision not to televise, but to offer a possible explanation of a kind.
great stuff Cav and Glen , one thing though these roulette machines are spreading like wildfire , my local Ladbrokes which I wander into a few times a year , its been divided into 2 rooms, one has a partition which allows it to have 4 more FOBT , so now all the habituees are roulette players mostly , as the young manager told me , !! nobody bets on horse racing any more !!
More Dross boys your plan is working
Well said Ricky. Most times I pop into betting shops hardly anyone is actually betting on the horses or the greyhounds etc but playing the aggravating FOBT terminals. Its absolutely ridiculous and I’m staggered how pathetic these people are by thinking they can win. Gamblers Anonymous here they come…
As a side issue, not one that should neccesarily concern the BHA, as it quite rightly didn’t for the posters excellent revised schedule above there were also 2 excellent Irish meetings which co-incidentally went off at the same times as the British meetings.
This meant that viewers were denied the pleasure of a lot of action and this would have a knock on effect for the levy.
I concentrated on the British action and failed to see any of the Irish apart from the opening and closing races, I’m sure some viewers and punters though concentrated on the Irish action at the expense of the British.
I’ve no doubt that if the revised schedule above had been in place not only would it have been better for British racing it would have allowed a certain amount of action from Ireland to be viewed instead of hardly any.Only 2 British meetings on New Years Day but twice races were run simultaneously at both tracks.
Despite the problems at Cheltenham is it really too difficult for the powers that be to organise things so only 2 race meetings (one flat) don’t clash.
I give up with these guys, nevermind "Racing for Change" they can’t even get the basics right.£34 million a year The Rabble cost and they can’t even be bothered to have anyone around to do two minutes work on an afternoon with more meetings schedueled than just about any other.
You could tell something like this would crop up a good week in advance and still nothing’s done.
My understanding was that a Raceday Coordinator was in the process of being recruited, specificaly to ensure the spacing out of races in the manner suggested by Paul.
I presume that post might not have been filled yet. Even if it hasn’t, though, maybe someone could outline what pressure could be brought to bear on a racecourse that is instructed to delay a race for 5-10 minutes by such a Coordinator yet refuses to do so?
It strikes me that the credibility of that post is going to live or perish entirely on how final and binding the Coordinator’s decisions would be. Instances such as September 20th last year, where Plumpton and Uttoxeter raced on top of each other nearly the whole afternoon after a delay at one or the other, suggests some course executives are going to prove less tractible than others.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
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