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It was £40 in the King Edward VII enclosure at Ascot today and £25 in the cheap seats.
Bargain.
Said no racegoer as they left the track today.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Anyone who has gone to Ascot today has paid for seven races and are getting six. And the star of the show is not running either. I would not blame them if they asked for a partial refund.
Maybe this weekend is just an unfortunate blip. But if this keeps up, a lot of people might decide they have better things to do on a Saturday afternoon.
It is bizarre. Him and Edwardstone. They are prep races at the end of the day, if they run and get beat so what. Too much making horses out to be superstars (in both codes) and being afraid of running them if it isn’t the ‘big day’. The game is gone and the biggest losers are the paying public. Should be a cracking card at Ascot today and there’s virtually no runners. Welfare? Give over. Are you telling me if the ground is like that come Cheltenham Day 1 he pulls Constitution Hill out? Not a chance.
Well yes, and eventually the sponsors, viewers. And the media will wonder why they bother when the stars are saved for March……
However, one hopes it’s a blip…….
A three runner three mile novice hurdle at Huntingdon now, with a 4/7 favourite. Just what the Levy requires on a Saturday afternoon.
Jane Mangan at Punchestown on RTV: “We probably have more runners in this maiden hurdle than Ascot has on its whole card.”
Last week at Cheltenham: £50k race with three runners.
Now we have a £40k race with two runners.
But we can still expect owners to complain about poor prize money.
Typical Henderson. Anyone really surprised?
Contrast to Nicholls – spots an easy £50k at Haydock and takes his horses there. He has just spoken on ITV racing, after Hitman’s training exercise picking up £50k and says ground seems ok at Ascot, but everyone has their opinion and reasons.
A slight dig, me thinksFour days ago, Henderson was raving about how well the horse had schooled over hurdles – so what was the ground like where that was done, because it certainly wouldn’t have been soft on any Lambourn gallop or schooling ground.
SAs for why Henderson gets criticised it’s becauser he talks himself into a corner. What he said on Wednesday was that ‘We’ll be all right as long as there no good to firm’. And there isn’t.
So the 3 biggest names on the card, Constituion Hill, L’Homme Presse and Edwardstone are all NR, great that.
I’m so glad I didn’t bother going to Ascot today.
Menu: L’Homme Pressé, Constitution Hill, Edwardstone.
Reality: A walkover, a match, none of the big three.
I’d have been livid.
I usually love tossing it off in the canteen at work on a Saturday afternoon to watch some quality jumps racing.
Todays non events are so poor now I might actually just go and some work instead!
This may sound harsh but Stickels has been in this work for a long time. It is his only job, and a specialist one. It would surely not be unreasonable to expect him, from experience, to have developed a gut feeling as to how things will pan out and to make the right judgement call regarding watering ect
It’s not as if he has to consider the interests of large numbers of connections involved with decent ground horses as by this time of year many will have been put in rest mode for the spring and those targeting animals at the Ascot races would have done so in confidence that their would be plenty of ease underfoot.
Mind you, Stickels got into the job through his family and I do recall his mother making a notable blunder or two in her role!
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