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All very well but can someone please explain what this means and exactly what they are going to do?
This leaves me totally bemused,although ‘a premier racing tier’ suggests the big boys will be looked after.
good luck to allJust listened to Nick Luck’s podcast where the host interviewed Harrington about the fixture list. At one point he asked her “Have you ever met anyone who said ‘What I really want is a floodlit fixture on a Sunday evening?'”.
She did not answer the question but recited a script about how their research had shown how there is a potential betting market for such fixtures. In other words, the bookmakers have told her the shops are dead on Sunday evening in the winter and they want some British racing for the one punter in each shop to bet on.
The explanation is quite simple. The BHA said they wanted suggestions to get more people to go racing. A rich owner said the answer was to give more money to rich owners. The BHA said that was a great idea and went with it.
“As for more summer jumping: does anyone actually know anyone who likes summer jumping?”
Summer jumping with nags in the UK? Nah.
Summer jumping at Saratoga and Colonial Downs? Love it. Love being able to see top class horses running at a top class tracks every Wednesday and Friday afternoon. Would be nice if we could have winter jump racing but the ground in hunt country is frozen for most of November-February. Maybe in 20 or 30 years when climate change turns the region sub-tropical…If all football matches had to begin before or after a small elite number of games in a prime-time slot on a Saturday afternoon, I’d imagine most clubs would go out of business.
Saturday afternoon is for attending live sport – it’s been a British tradition for a very long time.
Football isn’t just about the remote audience and racing shouldn’t be either.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Tinkering, which still doesn’t address the main issue that there’s too much racing. 300 NH races only equates to around 42 meetings (less than 1 per week). Otherwise, plenty of deckchairs being shoved about.
I’m sure we’re all looking forward to more evening AW racing………on Sundays……..in winter. A good chance there will be more horses than paying customers.
On the whole disappointing, but did we really expect anything else.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Listened to @BHAHorseracing Julie H on @nickluck. Apparently keen to get feedback from owners. Here it is Julie. You have basically protected the elite tracks & the bookies, screwed the grassroots & taken precious downtime away from yardstaff, whilst totally ignoring us.Good Job
— Dash Grange Stud (@DashStud) May 25, 2023
How does Cartmel having a Saturday fixture affect anyone negatively except perhaps for those who prefer to watch Racing Tv and would rather not have split screens?
If the bookmakers think Saturday afternoon turnover would increase with ‘premierisation’ then why not just have a top racing section during major festivals and on weekends so that the better racing is given more prominence on their websites/apps?
“does anyone actually know anyone who likes summer jumping?”
Me. Well, I like Irish summer jumps. The courses are pretty (except Wexford- sorry Wexford) and the Galway festival is fab.
I quite liked Wexford on my only visit. It’s not pretty and the finish is nowhere near the stands since it started racing the other way round but I thought it was quite a good track. I like the town as well.
Galway is not a particularly pretty track either and the meetings outside of the festival are sparsely attended.
Sligo would win my vote for the prettiest track, with Mount Benbulben as its backdrop.
One of the objectives of this ‘Premier Tier’ is to provide an incentive for owners not to sell their horses to overseas buyers at the end of their 3yo career. Here’s an example from last year of why that happens.
Owners buy a yearling at Nmkt sales for 75,000 gns and send it to Martyn and Freddie Meade. Horse doesn’t run as a 2yo, makes his debut in Mar 2022 at Wolverhampton. Goes on to win a maiden at Salisbury and a handicap at Bath, then placed second in handicaps Chester and Ascot over 1M 4f, the latter a race worth £52k to the winner.
So at a reasonable estimate, the owners will have spent at least £140k on purchase and training, and they now have a colt rated 94. In return thay have earned £48k in prize money, of which they keep 77.5% after deductions.
So he has no potential value as a stallion and will have to run in handicaps and/or Listed races if he stays in training. The most valuable 1M 4F handicap of the season is the Old Newton Cup at Haydock, worth £150k – the Duke of Edinburgh at Royal Ascot is £100k. He’d need to raise his mark by about 6lbs to get into the £500k Ebor Handicap. And of course, collecting any of those prizes depends on the horse improving and staying sound.
Sent to the Nmkt HIT sale, he is sold to an Australian stable for 400,000 guineas. If the BHA think that better prize money is going to prevent owners selling for that sort of profit, they must have Diane Abbot or Liz Truss working out the maths. Short of staging an Ebor Handicap every Saturday, we simply can’t compete.
Btw, the winner of the ‘3yo Ebor’, the Melrose Handicap, which offers a guaranteed run in the Ebor, was also sold to Australia privately, but probably for a similar sum. He’s run twice over there and already earned over £150k. I’ve also read (but not checked) that the first eight finishers in the Brittania Handicap have been sold to Gulf states, Hong Kong or the US.
I can see why it bothers the BHA that our big races are now serving as adverts for overseas buyers, but trying to buck the markets ain’t going to work. Perhaps York should change the name of their big race to the Ebay Handicap?
“Tinkering, which still doesn’t address the main issue that there’s too much racing. 300 NH races only equates to around 42 meetings (less than 1 per week). Otherwise, plenty of deckchairs being shoved about.
I’m sure we’re all looking forward to more evening AW racing………on Sundays……..in winter. A good chance there will be more horses than paying customers.
On the whole disappointing, but did we really expect anything else. :negative:”
Agree with all that, more than one journalist has mistakenly said 300 meetings were being culled rather than 300 races including the BHA spokesman on Racing TV this morning. All quickly corrected themselves but 300 meetings would be a good start. 300 races and reducing 7 race cards to six race cards is pathetic.
What’s the odds on Julie Harrington seeing it through to the bitter end?
“If the BHA think that better prize money is going to prevent owners selling for that sort of profit, they must have Diane Abbot or Liz Truss working out the maths.”
We are talking about an organisation which has Julie Harrington as its Chief Executive, so that is a very distinct possibility.
Isn’t it a bit ridiculous that the most expensive 1m 4f handicap is run at Haydock Park, rather than at the premier Flat fixture of the season?
How long will Royal Ascot survive as a top international fixture if it offers such poor prize money when compared to overseas? Especially when its prime asset – Queen Elizabeth II – is no longer there.
I’ve never met a UK punter who wanted a Tote monopoly.
So, for better or for worse, prize money here is much lower than in Pari-Mutuel monopoly jurisdictions overseas.
That won’t change.
So horses will be sold to race abroad.
But there is still quality here at Pattern level and hand on heart who could tell the difference between a Class 2 and a Class 6 handicap based solely on visuals (no knowledge of who the horses were)?
A recreational racegoer certainly couldn’t.
I get that the racing programme needs to maximise the Levy and I disagree with those who want it to revert to turnover-based as that’s a recipe for the reintroduction of betting tax and might also kill the betting exchange business model where gross commissions equals gross profit for gross profits tax purposes.
But a race meeting isn’t solely about off-course and Saturday is a great day to stage a meeting.
Why do live pictures from every meeting have to be beamed off-course?
Why can’t a venue which isn’t required on a Saturday nevertheless be allowed to stage a few if they can get the crowd to make it pay?
No media rights payments as the pictures are surplus to off-course requirements but to deny them the chance to run a profitable fixture at hours of their own choosing seems absurd.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“No media rights payments as the pictures are surplus to off-course requirements but to deny them the chance to run a profitable fixture at hours of their own choosing seems absurd.”
I have no idea, but I have always been led to believe that the media rights payments are like gold dust to the courses and a most of them would not want to put on a meeting without them.
In midweek, I am sure that’s the case?
But on a Saturday?
I’m not so sure and I’d be interested to know.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Again I have always been led to believe, but don’t know for a fact, that the racecourses will never reveal how much the media rights are worth to them.
I would not be surprised if it was the same for Saturdays as midweek.
I agree Ian it would be nice to know, but I think more qualified people than me have tried.
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