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I was lucky enough to catch the Rod Street chat on ITV through a lot of pause and fast forwarding. He may not have good ideas but he strung quite a few words together in impressive fashion. A novelty in itself in modern racing broadcasting.
Quite an engaging character, I thought Rod could have played out the JJ part himself thereby shaving the odd guinea or two off the budget
The figures are very worrying. Hopefully its only a short term trend and as i was discussing with other older folk yesterday the vast majority havent experienced inflation being so high and their budgets totally squeezed. Plus of course everbody employed by the govt have had little or no pay rises for nigh on a decade. With a choice of going to see a show or going racing many will choose the show now.
Im suprised more courses arent arranging more concerts especially as many artists are still trying to rearrange cancelled tours from covid times. It is very concerning and my worry is that many who used to go to two or three meetings a year have just got out of the habit of going racing.I don’t go as often.
I went to 29 Points this season just ended, which might sound a lot, but I’d planned to attend over 50 the season Covid struck and I will be cutting back further next season for various reasons: cost of fuel, a bit of “been there, done that,”fuel costs and the utter tiresomeness of the travelling.
So far this year, I’ve attended Blue Riband Day on Epsom Downs, Classic Trial Day at Sandown Park, a Bath (free admission day, but it needed to be as it was rammed with coach loads of alfresco boozers) and two Salisburys.
I went to Ascot Champions Day last year and, while it’s only half an hour from me and I enjoyed it, I’ve already decided not to bother this year.
If I stay at home on a Saturday afternoon and watch on TV, there’s no travelling, no drunk racegoers and I’m £100 in front before I’ve even had a bet because of the zero exes.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Free admission at Ffos Las tomorrow. Pity it is one of the more difficult tracks to reach for travellers but I hope it gets well supported by the locals.
Fair play to them, I’d burn £60 in fuel driving there and back, I’m sure it would be worse for many others, but hopefully it will be well supported locally.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"One of the few tracks I could not reach on a day trip. I turned it into a weekend break on my one and only visit. I had found a nice place to stay in Llanelli, the nearest large town. But it took about 6 hours to get there, so I doubt I will be going again! Nice track, though.
Was Ffos Las postponed from today ? I know they’d raised concerns about the fuel protests.
I have the week off work and was contemplating going to Newmarket on Saturday
Looked at the admission of £37 and train ticket price from Birmingham of almost £70 (iv paid less for flights to dublin)
Then you have the food and beer prices to add on another £30-£40 (lunch and 3 or 4 pints)
Plus my bets and if I have a slow punting day your looking at a very steep day out
Il be playing golf and getting home just in time to watch the July Cup instead
This thought process happens once or twice most months for me
Unless you are lucky enough to live near a track that has top racing it’s just not worth it
I went to Warwick on Kingmaker day and got to see two Cheltenham winners in Edwardstone and Marie’s rock
Which would seem good value as it wasn’t expensive but the first 3 races had 10 runners between them with 3 in the novice hurdle and 4 in the two races won by edwardstonr and Marie’s rock. Not exactly an appealing punting opportunity.
There’s too much racing on, leading to small fields
And as everything is getting more and more expensive the longer the racing authorities allow such an average product to be on show the more attendances will drop.
Hard decisions need to be made, fixtures need to be removed, some tracks may have to close if they are losing money. It needs to be done ASAP but none of the people running horse racing like to think of the future they are all stuck in the past.
That’s the thing though, are racecourses actually in trouble with the drop in numbers?
I find the current state of affairs confusing and many of the internet comment generally (not just here) illogical.
If a racecourse can stage a meeting and make a profit solely off revenue from racegoers it should be allowed to do so, even if every track in the country raced the same day.
And on Saturdays and at certain evening meetings many possibly can do that.
But if they can’t and need the media rights money for broadcasting it then the question is: does the off-course industry really need this meeting beamed to it?
I keep hearing there’s too much racing and that even some firms of bookmakers think so.
Then why are they paying for it and broadcasting it?
Pre SIS, there were no pictures – none, zero.
And on busy days Extel didn’t even do universal audio commentary – some tracks were results only.
It seems a no-brainer to me to limit the number of meetings broadcast on any day and withdraw funding from tracks whose pictures aren’t needed.
They can still race if they want to, but they won’t get media rights payment so they have to stand financially on their revenue from racegoers.
I totally agree there is too much racing, but the solution above would still give tracks with unwanted meetings freedom to race – it just wouldn’t subsidise it any more.
Why are ARC tracks being paid to stage and screen wall-to-wall Class 6 dross that isn’t even needed?
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“Was Ffos Las postponed from today ? I know they’d raised concerns about the fuel protests.”
Yes. I believe there was a protest intended to take place on the Severn Bridge, so the track took the decision to postpone the meeting to today.
‘That’s the thing though, are racecourses actually in trouble with the drop in numbers?”
Some of the smaller tracks did well during lockdown. They still got the media rights money once racing resumed behind closed doors but did not have to pay the same number of staff they would have needed to if crowds had been able to attend.
It’s newmarkets big summer day and I don’t think £37 is unreasonable. A ordinary seat at a championship football match will easily be that
Also Sandown Solario Saturday is £15 grandstand
The case for too much racing rests around whether fields are continually too small at the lower level but are they? Are we to scrap loads of races and leave owners pissed off with fewer opportunities?
The economics of whether it pays or not are a bit opaque frankly. No one outside the courses and jc will really have a handle on that
Jockey Club Racecourses has a two-tier pricing policy.
If you want to go to: the Cheltenham Festival, The Derby, or the Eclipse, you have to remortgage your home for the chance to be surrounded by Peaky Blinders wannabes and their Proseccoed-up other halves.
But for weekday fayre like Blue Riband Day at Epsom, Classic Trial Day, Solario Day and Henry II evening at Sandown Park, it’s really cheap (as little as a tenner) and, afternoons especially, it’s just a sprinkling of harmless coffin dodgers, whose ranks I imminently expect to be joining (though a cardigan and pipe are out of the question!).
You can still have a civilised inexpensive quality card day at the races if you swerve the top end JCR stuff, swerve the overpriced ARC Class 6-infested days and get a laser-like focus on the good JCR deals.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Not too long ago I used to go to all three days of The July meeting at Newmarket, only went once after they moved it from mid week.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysI used to go to all three days of the July meeting in the late 80s and early 90s.
It worked much better in the Tuesday to Thursday slot, followed by two days at York.
Now what was the Magnet Cup – once one of the most significant betting handicaps of the year and the highlight of its Saturday – is almost completely lost amidst far too much racing.
Too much racing.
Can’t be beyond someone at the BHA just to look through the calandar and find the types of races with too few runners whilst at the same time the types with too many runners. Reducing the numbers of the former whilst adding a little to the latter.
Simples.
If there isn’t anyone at the BHA, give the job to Alan Potts.
Value Is Everything
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