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Plumpton showed on Monday what you can do with strong winds and waterlogged conditions.
Not so, it was standing water on a clay soil that fortunately hadn’t had the time to be absorbed. Very different from, and much easier to travel on, than a waterlogged clay soil.
All credit to Plumpton for recognizing that the grim-on-the-eye conditions weren’t actually as bad as they seemed, and allowing racing to go ahead.
Compare and contrast with Ayr the previous day which which had little standing water but was nevertheless near-waterlogged and truly grim.
Still fair play to the people at Cheltenham for getting a 2 day 19 race card bonanza up and running.
Where else do you get a card that begins with a 4m Novice Chase and finishes with a 2m flat race.
Lets get behind the executives at Cheltenham for doing this and for putting on what will be without doubt one of the best 2 day race meetings in the world.
British Racing, this is what it is all about after all if Walthamstow can do 14 race cards then a 10 race Cheltenham is a doddle
All this guff about the abandonment being due to potential damage to the ‘corporate’ marquees really won’t wash. If anything more concern was aired about structural damage to the temporary stands which house the ‘cheap seats’.
I don’t care whether the temporary structures are for the corporate types or the cheap seats or whoever.
Fact 1 – Cheltenham racecourse makes many millions of pounds in profit every year. I don’t know this for a fact, but my educated guess is that only Ascot could possibly make more.Fact 2 – No course does less to provide racegoers with a decent place to watch the action, bearing in mind the numbers.
Fact 3 – Cheltenham have spent peanuts over the years compared to Ascot, and what they have spent it on has been nonsense (wtf is the Centaur all about? Has any true racing fan ever been inside there? )and to still be housing customers – whether corporate or cheap seaters – in temporary constructions is a testament to the sheer greed of those who own the place.
No-one loves the action at Cheltenham more than me, but I think the course survives on sheer hype alone (it just isn’t fashionable to say anything bad about the place) and is the most over-rated experience on earth. I spent yesterday in front of the goggle box and it was the most enjoyable day I’ve had at the Festival for 15 yrs.
While it may have been the correct decision (marginally), I’m not entirely comfortable with one aspect of it:
We have a situation where it’s safe enough for horses, riders and fans, but end up being buggered by the corporates, freeloaders who go from one big sporting occasion to another, sitting with their backs to the action, while they force obscene quantities of food and booze down their gullets.
I bet some of you guys moaned in 1985 that the match in Heysel went off a couple of hours late and again in 1989 because the match in Hillsborough was abandoned.
Get some perspective on things for God’s sake.
I think that remark is totally out of order.
Agree.
I have just been speakking to a mate and his little sister is working in one of the bars at the festival this week.
Apparently the coach arrived on site this morning with the staff and she said they werent allowed to get off the coach as it was so dangerous. She said a marquee and metal pole was flying through the air.Now when you have metal poles flying wildly through the air and they wont even let you get off the coach then it should become clear to the knockers that the correct decision was made. Nothing namby pamby UK nanny state about it.
I have just been speakking to a mate and his little sister is working in one of the bars at the festival this week.
Apparently the coach arrived on site this morning with the staff and she said they werent allowed to get off the coach as it was so dangerous. She said a marquee and metal pole was flying through the air.Now when you have metal poles flying wildly through the air and they wont even let you get off the coach then it should become clear to the knockers that the correct decision was made. Nothing namby pamby UK nanny state about it.
There was no mention of this anywhere you’d have thought TV might have mentioned it particularly Ed Gillespie. Not calling anyone a liar but you always hear tales.
Anyway I’m not going into rant mode again so I’ll just let you lot get on with it.
Maybe my mates little sister is lying, I dont really know her so lets not rule anything out at this stage.
There was no mention of this anywhere you’d have thought TV might have mentioned it particularly Ed Gillespie. Not calling anyone a liar but you always hear tales.
Sorry Flash, must disagree with you there. Ed Gillespie mentioned in in several media interviews this morning.
It has also appeared, to my knowledge – and there may be others I have not seen, on the Sporting Life and BBC websites.
Safety first. Full stop.
Correct decision made. Move on.
(Short sentences. Order of day.)
My point remains that too many people find it too easy to complain about Health & Safety issues when they don’t affect them personally, other than the fact that a sporting event has been cancelled so they don’t get to watch it.
I stand by my remarks and quite frankly don’t see the problem with highlighting past tragedies to emphasise why Health & Safety is paramount.
Safety first. Full stop.
Correct decision made. Move on.
(Short sentences. Order of day.)
Ditto. Right decision. Safety first.
My point remains that too many people find it too easy to complain about Health & Safety issues when they don’t affect them personally, other than the fact that a sporting event has been cancelled so they don’t get to watch it.
I stand by my remarks and quite frankly don’t see the problem with highlighting past tragedies to emphasise why Health & Safety is paramount.
Heysel and Hillsborough were tragedies on a previously unimaginable scale, involving some 130-odd deaths; the racing was called off yesterday on the off chance that a flying bolt may have hit someone on the head. Your comparison is crass.
What was beneath contempt, however, was your boast that "some of us guys" (and as you didn’t name names I’m assuming that you were referring to those who were critical of the decision to abandon, me included) would have moaned at the decision to delay/postpone those matches, an accusation which I find as sickening as it is stupid.
Safety first. Full stop.
Correct decision made. Move on.
(Short sentences. Order of day.)
Just a reminder – you are the administrator of the Forum, not the arbiter of the universe.
They say that the best referee’s go unnoticed. You would do well to heed those wise words.
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