Football should have dictated when Frankel’s race was run

[Bachelors Hall]

Whenever I go racing and see drunks cheering when horses fall, women who are clearly more interested in being seen than watching anything on the racetrack and general yoofs who are there to party, Whenever I get beer spilt on me, wade through lakes of piss in order to reach a urinal or have some jerk ask me who’s going to win a twenty runner sprint handicap just because I bothered to bring a racing post with me. Whenever I see a fashion stand, hear loud pop/R&B/hippity hop music or have some spotty student who knows sod all about the sport wearing a shirt saying "ask me about racing". Whenever somebody asks why there isn’t a champagne lounge at Stratford, whenever I see a photographer taking a picture of anybody who isn’t directly involved in the sport or whenever I can’t see a race because my view is blocked by people who wouldn’t know a horse from a jar of sauerkraut, I always think to myself RACING NEEDS MUCH MUCH MORE OF THIS.

To utter hell with promotion!

I want my racecourses to be half deserted and patronized by nobody but anoraks, connections, journalists and prospective anoraks, connections and journalists. If we tossed all of the bookies from the top of Beachy Head and funded the sport by using a levied exchange and totalizator then this dream would very easily become a reality. But no. The powers that be seem hell bent ruining my ******* day out

[Pants]

In my office full of football fans the only time of the year racing is mentioned is the Friday before the National & Gold Cup day, however to my surprise this morning (after a a big weekend for sport) Frankel did get a couple of the non-racing fans quite animated, they did know they’d seen something out of the ordinary and had loved it.

[% MAN]

Whenever I go racing and see drunks cheering when horses fall, women who are clearly more interested in being seen than watching anything on the racetrack and general yoofs who are there to party, Whenever I get beer spilt on me, wade through lakes of piss in order to reach a urinal or have some jerk ask me who’s going to win a twenty runner sprint handicap just because I bothered to bring a racing post with me. Whenever I see a fashion stand, hear loud pop/R&B/hippity hop music or have some spotty student who knows sod all about the sport wearing a shirt saying "ask me about racing". Whenever somebody asks why there isn’t a champagne lounge at Stratford, whenever I see a photographer taking a picture of anybody who isn’t directly involved in the sport or whenever I can’t see a race because my view is blocked by people who wouldn’t know a horse from a jar of sauerkraut, I always think to myself RACING NEEDS MUCH MUCH MORE OF THIS.

To utter hell with promotion!

I want my racecourses to be half deserted and patronized by nobody but anoraks, connections, journalists and prospective anoraks, connections and journalists. If we tossed all of the bookies from the top of Beachy Head and funded the sport by using a levied exchange and totalizator then this dream would very easily become a reality. But no. The powers that be seem hell bent ruining my [expletive] day out

As they say on Facebook – LIKE

[% MAN]

I was at Thirsk on Saturday and they did show the Lockinge, with commentary over the PA – they even included the Lockinge card in their racecard.

I can’t imagine, even here, there was a racecourse that failed to show the race.
How much of the other racing from Newbury & Newmarket did they show at Thirsk?
I’ve heard Mark Johnston state before he’s found it nigh on impossible many times to watch his other runners at away tracks.
It’s plainly ridiculous away meetings aren’t freely available to watch for racegoers.

I recall seeing Newbury, Newmarket and Bangor on the screens – although I generally pay little attention to the "away" meetings as it takes enough of my time to concentrate on the meeting I’m at.

In fairness most courses do show the away meetings although hearing commentary is difficult because the screens with the sound turned up tend to be in the bars and the commentary is drowned out by the ambient noise.

Although I would say it is only in the last year or so that showing any away racing has been more common place.

Unfortunately there are still a number of courses who only show the racing being broadcast by the same broadcaster as they use themselves – that’s down simply to them not being prepared to pay to show the other broadcasters races. It only recently, for example, that Leicester have begun showing RUK races.

[Author]

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