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We shall see – I predict GL will be back in action but will all NH courses survive this coming year?
Even Paul thinks a couple will go
National Hunt Racing has never been in fine fettle and will still continue to prosper.
In the summer places like Cartmel,Stratford,Perth will still get big crowds in attendance while the big festivals and family days will get the masses in as people will want a cheaper day out.
Weather permitting….
So true…….still, at least they have a racing license, so no worries on that score.
Hexham also have an extra meeting on Sunday 25th. The six race card gets underway at 1.45pm. The feature race is the Betfair Handicap Hurdle (Class 2) with a prize fund of £16,000 over 3 miles. Unfortunately the meeting is in the balance and already limited to hurdles races only. The current going is forcast as Heavy.
This Sunday was due to be one of the very few without UK racing, so it’s to the BHA’s credit they should choose to fill that, rather than risk clogging up a weekday.
The next (and last) blank Sunday is 15th February so with abandonments seeming to be the rule rather than the exception just now, I’d expect a couple to be added then too.
Hexham in January? Don’t recall them racing in mid-winter up there before: Captain Scott eat yer heart out
BHA deserve credit for getting Ayr on at short notice but Hexham was always in the calendar (though they changed it to all hurdles on Tuesday)
Apologies in order then dprp, but that Sunday is shown as blank in the calendar I’ve got. Perhaps Hexham was added sometime after the original fixture list was drawn up.
The original schedule, as Drone rightly pointed out, did have some blank Sundays.
A later schedule was released – after most calendars and diaries had gone to print.
This revised schedule added meetings on the "blank" Sundays as well as a handful of twilight meetings later on in the year.
Love Hexham as I do, I’m not sure having a fixture there on the same day as a pretty popular point-to-point fixture at Alnwick barely 50 miles away is going to gain it the biggest Sunday crowd ever. That’s even before one considers that Alnwick is a little less exposed and less susceptible to cold weather-induced abandonments.
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 original schedule, as Drone rightly pointed out, did have some blank Sundays.
A later schedule was released – after most calendars and diaries had gone to print.
Thanks Paul
Could some kind soul let me know what meetings are planned for 15th February
TIA
Sedgefield and Great Leighs.
Unless anyone can prove otherwise, I think I’m right in saying this will be Sedgefield’s first ever Sunday meeting. Historically a huge car boot sale has been in situ at the course most / all Sundays, so I wonder if that’s a weekend off for that event.
I also think it means we’re down to one last course yet to have held a Sunday fixture – God’s own Cartmel. Nowhere else springs readily to mind, anyway.
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.
Cartmel can never hold a Sunday meeting as the course is on Church Land so it is not allowed.
…is the correct answer for five points!
Unlikely that the only racecourse in Britain with its own chaplain is going to go down the heathen route just to factor in a Sunday meeting any time soon, in any event. Could always squeeze in a selling hurdle just before Evensong, mind.
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.
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