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The wording of the BHA statement will have come from neither Harrington nor Saumarez Smith. Can’t you tell by the reek from it that it stinks of Downing St bluster and bollocks? It will have come from a fella called Greg Swift who has been head of communications at the BHA since last September. (Nope nobody else has heard of him either)
“Greg joins the BHA from his current role in government as Head of News and Press Secretary to the Foreign Secretary. He has previously held roles as Head of Communications for the Department for Exiting the European Union and at Number 10 as the Prime Minister’s Official Deputy Spokesperson and Head of News.”
The BHA claim they are doing this for the long term benefit of racing. I cannot believe that they believe that. It is totally and utterly for grabbing whatever else they can from betting. The sport already had most of its eggs in the Bookies’ baskets; they’ve just gone all in with this. Here’s what happens in the long term: the bookmakers use racing punters to sift through every single one, discard those who make a profit and convert the others to casino players, so that they no longer spend their money on racing.
To add the Iceberg that awaits down the line for the Great Ship Racing, the BHA are also effectively strangling the life out of the maternity wards that breed lifetime fans – the smaller tracks. First move is to get them off the TV and out of sight, next is to move their fixtures to times that will almost certainly cost fortunes in lost gate money. As they struggle to cling on, their media rights share reduces and is transferred to tracks who are already doing well out of this.
The whole thing is a disastrous idea, which we plebs are expected to accept as the brainwork of people with CEO, and Chairman after their names, people who are ‘better than us, cleverer.’
I have very low hopes of the BHA anyway, but am astounded that this Rubik Cube of a clusterf*ck ever got to see the light of day.
“Me. Well, I like Irish summer jumps. ”
Hmm, let’s see what’s running tomorrow in the jumps off-season at Ballinrobe (bonus points if you can point to it on a map). It’s not a bank holiday in Ireland tomorrow, just a bog standard Monday.
There’s Envoi Allen’s little half brother, running for Willie Mullins in the colours of Chris Jones: he’s not even favourite; a grade 1 winning hurdler running for Cheveley Park / Henry de Bromhead/Rachel Blackmore in a beginners’ chase- he’s not even favourite either; favourite for the feature handicap chase is a half brother to Jessie Harrington’s Lifetime Ambition, running for Minella Indo’s connections; and Annie Power’s wain by Galileo in that despised of races, the summer bumper.As well as the top NH jockeys in Ireland, and therefore the world , there are also a hatful of conditionals- the good ones tend to get noticed at this time of year.
I got the bus from Galway to Ballinrobe. My B&B host in Galway assured me it is “a lovely meeting” but then he said “mind you, there is nothing else there and the pubs are never open”.
Which I thought was a bit harsh. It was quite a nice little town.
I am interested to see how Ballyadam gets on tonight. His previous attempts at chasing were not very successful, so can he do better now he is a bit older?
Joe,
Thank you for that post – you share my anger and feeling that the base of the pyramid is being left to crumble away as all the money is spent on the top few bricks.
It’s those lifetime fans you mention that become small owners. I’ve met hundreds of them over the years, all decent people whose passion for the sport overcomes the barriers put in their way by racing. But there is very little in this ‘Premierisation’ that suggests the BHA welcome such owners or their horses.
A couple of months ago, I wrote about the Bath meeting on Good Friday where I’d wanted to have a runner in a £35k 0-75 race, but too many others had the same idea. Two points arise from that – no recognition that the 400+ entries suggested a demand that is not being met by the standard program – and secondly, the race I’d aimed at was won by a horse trained by Henderson and owned by a multi millionaire. I have since suggested that if they plan to repeat that meeting next year, they should add qualifying conditions to limit entries to stables that support Bath all year round!
Alan,
I rarely get angry these days, but this damn carry on enrages me. The meek acceptance of it makes it worse. Aside from the cash grab, there’s vanity there too in this ‘we must keep the best horses here’ – what for? So Coolmore or Godolphin or some other mega rich owner can buy it and sieve out more prize money they don’t need? Bloody criminal.
Joe
Racing Post reports that no funding is in place for the BHA’s Premierisation project. Harrington says they will be working on that next.
And you thought this grand plan couldn’t get any more ridiculous!!!
Actually, Joe, I always had faith in the plan to get even more ridiculous.
It’s part of my wider ongoing faith in racing to be run badly.
When has racing ever been run well?
The only reason it’s lasted as long as it has is that, irrespective of the utter lack of meritocracy or respect for domain expertise, it’s historically been a fascinating sport with the USP that spectators can engage and interact with every single race by having a bet and feeling like their wager’s owner for ten minutes – the activity/day out that can pay for itself if you back a few winners.
But it’s become increasingly about things other than what it is.
Betting is shameful, so is the actual racing tbh – horses being made to race.
Best to keep quiet about both and focus on it being a day out, often with live music afterwards in the summer.
Anyway racegoers are about to be confirmed as coming a remote second to serving those who fund the game (but can’t be talked because they’re) the big bookmakers.
A racecourse, like a dog track, is now simply a piece of capital equipment, to run at full capacity whenever possible.
The eventual future shock scenario: A tiny number of AW tracks, where horses are permanently stabled cutting travel costs. a tiny number of trainers, AW surfaces, the potential to race 24/7/365 round the clock by Sun or Moon (well, floodlights), that’s the target for those pulling the strings of the BHA puppets.
At least that’s how it seems to me.
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