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like most racegoers i guess ive had easter off work,but what racing did have to choose to attend?
nothing at all on friday,yesterday had an all weather meeting as the principal meeting and as for the rest of easter,well class horses need not apply.
but when most return to work after easter hey presto the top class racing reapears with the craven meeting and a 3 day jumps meeting at cheltenham.
both cards are no longer televised so why are they still in their midweek slots?why cant they be at the weekend?
at least cheltenham is on friday night but even then the feature race of the 3 day meeting is on wednesday afternoon.
is there any hope that in 2010 decent racing will be run when people can actually go to watch it?
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I have to agree it’s been bloody awful with all this jumps tripe but at least we can look forward to the Craven meeting.
Agree the Easter cards are poor, but come, come, Mr Wilson …….
You mean the Craven Meeting, in amongst ‘jumps tripe’ such as the decent 3-day Cheltenham April meeting, the Scottish Grand National meeting, the Perth Festival, the Sandown Gold Cup meeting and the Punchestown Festival.
I’ll take some that ‘tripe’, thank you.
Rob
There’s little point asking for better races on Easter Monday if those races don’t attract the runners. The Chepstow card tomorrow hasn’t contained the Welsh Champion Hurdle or the Welsh Novices’ Champion Chase for a few years now, but it represented something of a mercy killing when those two well-endowed but frequently appallingly patronised contests came to an end.
One man’s poison and all that, though. With 25 point-to-point and nearly 20 Rules meetings to choose from in the Saturday-Tuesday period, I’ve been as happy as a pig in some of that there dung all weekend.
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.
I have to confess I usually try to avoid racing at Bank Holidays not least because they tend to be too crowded for comfort with too many out of control "little people" – even moving round the course, from the parade ring to a viewing point for example, can be a real pain. Plus getting away afterwards (even knowing the escape routes) can be more of a pain than usual.
Having said that I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at Haydock yesterday, my first visit to an NH fixture there since the "change", the crowd wasn’t too bad, not too boozy – although there were a few escapees from ‘ladies” day at Aintree in evidence. Also although different than the “traditional” fences the new “hardware” wasn’t as bad as I had envisaged.
Is anyone going to Ayr next Saturday?
There’s little point asking for better races on Easter Monday if those races don’t attract the runners. The Chepstow card tomorrow hasn’t contained the Welsh Champion Hurdle or the Welsh Novices’ Champion Chase for a few years now, but it represented something of a mercy killing when those two well-endowed but frequently appallingly patronised contests came to an end.
One man’s poison and all that, though. With 25 point-to-point and nearly 20 Rules meetings to choose from in the Saturday-Tuesday period, I’ve been as happy as a pig in some of that there dung all weekend.
gc
Absolutely mate, and don’t forget those who managed to engineer Tuesday (I’m not one of them) for Flagg Moor point with the stone wall members. Off to Aldington today (got a lift from Ashford) where are you going? Probably also going to Kingston Blount on Saturday. Oh and have you seen the blue octopus any where around it was missing from Charing on Saturday. Will keep a look out for it today
I still have Ayr to cross off my list of courses to do, Paul, but a work engagement on Sunday prevents me from straying too far from home this weekend – likely to be a first ever visit to Kingston Blount for me instead.
Have a good one, though. Not sure when our paths will cross next, unless you’re going to Kempton’s evening jumps meeting a week on Monday?
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.
The complaints about the Easter program overlook one key point – Easter moves around.
OK, this year, you could have the Craven meeting at Easter, but try the same thing last year and none of the Newmarket trainers would have had their horses ready, because Easter Saturday was March 22nd. And in 2011, it’s on April 23rd, so too close to the Guineras meeting.
Similarly, move the Cheltenham meeting and you have a fixture that might come too close to the festival, too close to Aintree, or in 2011, too close to the Sandown end of season meeting.
It doesn’t matter which group of top class horses you aim at, or what type of race you want to stage, a meeting that might happen anytime between late March and late April isn’t going to work. So first things first – get the church and the government to agree to a fixed bank holiday weekend, then you can address the fixture list.
If you could achieve that, say fixed as the second Sunday in April, then run the Grand National on Easter Saturday and the Craven meeting on Sunday and Monday.
Of course that would put the Aintree Ladies Day on Good Friday – a bit of a contradiction in terms ………..
Not sure when our paths will cross next, unless you’re going to Kempton’s evening jumps meeting a week on Monday?
gc
Silly me – I hadn’d twigged that was a jumps fixture and there I was thinking how stupid having Windsor and an AW Kempton meeting at the same time
I have got Pontefract pencilled in that day but may have a re-think on that one now.
Am definitely going to Towcester the following evening though and the re-opening of Epsom on the Wednesday.
yesterday had an all weather meeting as the principal meeting
Would it have been just fine if it was the same races (which werent bad at all) with the same horses running on turf?
Having said that, it would appear to make sense that one of Cheltenham or Newmarket was moved to the weekend.
Paul/Jeremy….will be at the Kempton evening jumps meet myself (probably). See you there
Of course that would put the Aintree Ladies Day on Good Friday – a bit of a contradiction in terms ………..
Quote of the week so far – very good!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.
Alan Lee addresses this very issue in the Times today. As ever, he makes some good points
Archimedes used to say that if he had a long enough lever, he could adjust the orbit of the Moon.
As Easter is the first Sunday after the first New Moon [edit: oops, Full, not New] after the Vernal Equinox, maybe that is the way to go.
I’m sure there is a better chance of that than religious leaders agreeing to change something that was decided upon at the Nicaean congress or whatever.
I shall be at Ayr on Saturday, cant wait
For me this with October is one of the best months for racing as their is something for everyone regarding Flat and Jumps.
The Craven is always an informative meeting and not one for betting in but good to see high quality flat horses flex their muscles.
Ayr is a cracking racecourse is a nice little town and i hope to sample some of the local ales after racing in one of their many pubs.
Would love to do the Perth meeting as people say it is like an end of term party atmos and its good to see the smaller trainers and the lower rated horses have their day in the sun.
Quote of the week so far – very good!
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