- This topic has 21 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 4 months ago by
.
- Posts
Cracking card today played out in front of more trainers than punters.
A card like today’s switched to a Haydock, York, Ascot etc would attract a bumper crowd in comparison
- Total Posts 17716
But their response is to move
MORE
of the 2yo Group 1’s to Newmarket, not less!
The Middle Park and Cheveley Park have always been races for the connoisseur, and today’s card – as you say a cracking one in the event – was never going to be a blockbuster. The driving wind and rain can hardly have helped either.
Now the Fillies Mile (a favourite race of mine in its current form, as the bend makes sure it’s not too gruellingly pace-based) is doomed to lose status, as it will attract the second tier fillies not thought good fast enough for the Cheveley Park 6F test over the same course.
- Total Posts 17716
Why not move every poorly-attended meeting to Ascot then, redremi?
Speaking as a bit of a traditionalist, it grates a bit to say it but you have to agree that running two Group 1’s on a poorly attended (and probably poorly viewed on CH 4) raceday does seem a wasted opportunity for racing.
Mind, it did seem a wretched day weather-wise which doesn’t help.
- Total Posts 17716
One factor which does not help: running the four major Group Races at the top of the card, commencing at 1:25pm.
No sense of build-up. No sense of theatre. No sense of anticipation.
Oh yes, of course it is done so that C4 can get away from the dull nags in plenty of time for
Countdown
, or whatever other cheap sheep-fodder happened to be beautifying the schedules yesterday.
So add to my list:
No sense of priorities. No sense.
What do RFC think of the World Athletics Championships out of interest?
EDIT
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie … -22601383/
That is just for anyone who doesn’t get what I mean with that comment.
They’re moving it to Ascot, Jose along with the 2016 Commonwealth Games.
I’ve been critical of Newmarket this season but they were unlucky yesterday. Depressing, hopeless weather ensured today’s pampered fairweather punters missed a rare treat with The Dream.
Incidentally, does anyone wish to take my fiver that Ascot will host a selling plate any time in the next five years?
2010 – Dream Ahead is a thrilling winner of the Middle Park and will reportedly attempt to follow up in the Dewhurst. Precisely why the program of races is called a pattern.
2011 – Middle Park and Dewhurst will be run on the same day, so a traditional double is no longer possible. Precisely why RFC is a dropped stitch in the pattern.
As to the crowds at Newmarket, yesterday and/or for the original Champions Day, can anyone name a flat race meeting staged in the UK in October in the last forty years that has attracted a crowd of more than 20,000.
Flat racing is a summer sport – Ascot gets 70,000 on the Saturday of the Royal meeting for two reasons – half the crowd comes in coach parties, half the crowd arrives two to three hours ahead of the racing and has a picnic in the car park. How do you sell a picnic in the car parks in mid October?
AP
On the subject of the pattern, does anyone know why the BHA has stopped publishing the pattern books online? Seems a retrograde step if it’s deliberate, or just poorly organised if not.
You have to wonder at the point of running two Group 1’s for two year olds with only a furlong difference on the same day.
You would have to think either both races will suffer (with the good horses avoiding each other) or one of tehm will wilt in the shade of teh other (and the Middle Park would look long odds on to be the one to suffer).
It’d be inetresting to see a list of the horses who’ve run in both over the last ten years.
Armchair jockey,
no not ascot. i went to a very rainy nottingham last wednesday to watch some (relative) egg amd spoon racing.
Haven’t got the figures to prove it, but i reckon there were more punters at nottingham; move it to the midlands and give these races a real chance to shine …
You have to wonder at the point of running two Group 1’s for two year olds with only a furlong difference on the same day.
You would have to think either both races will suffer (with the good horses avoiding each other) or one of tehm will wilt in the shade of teh other (and the Middle Park would look long odds on to be the one to suffer).
It’d be inetresting to see a list of the horses who’ve run in both over the last ten years.
It’s barmy. However, isn’t the 6f race for sprinter/miler types, and the 7f Dewhurst for more Derby types? But what happens a week (or is it 2 weeks) later with the RP Trophy/Futurity……??
None of this need to have happened.I don’t see how Channel Four could be blamed for the lack of crowds. You build a sense of theatre & anticipation by arriving early before the first race & soaking up the surroundings & the atmosphere as the crowds start to arrive in earnest. As far as I’m concerned, have the feature race as the opener, that’ll teach people for just strolling in as it suits them.
The meeting was poorly attended because Newmarket is in the middle of nowhere (compared to Ascot) & the weather was shocking.
You could have had the four races at the back end of the card, or in the middle topped by the Derby & tailed by the Grand National & it wouldn’t change the location of the racecourse, nor the weather, nor the attendance.So like it or not, RFC do have a point.
When the dogs run you wait to see will your dog negotiate the first bend successfully. Seems like at Newmarket you wait to see will your horse get to the rail. The race to the rail is second only to the draw. Then the race itself becomes the center of attention. So the punter has to win twice before his bet becomes operative.They(horses) then must handle the dip. This is all baloney.So may the best horse with a high draw who gets to the rail quickly and has a dip propensity win.Of course the race must be run at Newmarket because it is a good track?No.Because of the large crowd?No.Because it is a fair test of horse and jockey? No.Because we always ran it there ? YES. That explanation should delight the punter who just watched his horse sliding from one rail to the other.At least the draw should be declared with the entries and we could decide with a little more comfort whether to bet or not.Did I miss something?
- Total Posts 17716
The meeting was poorly attended because Newmarket is in the middle of nowhere (compared to Ascot) & the weather was shocking.
I beg to differ. Newmarket, far from being "the middle of nowhere", is in fact the centre of the horse racing world. And no matter how passionately RFC might dream otherwise, whilst all the stables, horses, training grounds, breeding and service industries are focused there, the centre it will remain.
Ascot too is "in the middle of nowhere", with a notably bad rail link from London. Unless you have a car, and are prepared to spend hours in jams on the roads around Reading and Windsor getting there, it is at least as poor a non-starter from the point of view of location.
As to running the Middle Park and Dewhurst on the same day, it is abundantly clear that whoever thought of that little gem has no respect for the Pattern, and no brain. Do they think that running the 2yo Colts’ Championship in two legs on the same day has any purpose or sense to it? Or are they perhaps thinking of instituting a Victorian-style match run-off over 6.5F later in the day between the victors of the two divisions?
Had they’d done nothing else, this gem alone ensures that British Racing’s 2111 Pattern will be an embarrassing laughing stock in the face of the rest of our world.
I wasn’t aware that Ascot was badly served by trains but I’ll take your word for it.
Going off topic, it seems to me that many racecourses are pretty much ‘no go’ areas unless you have a car.
Of my own experience Haydock & Wolverhampton are both close to major railway stations but the bus from there to the course is a little diddy thing that runs once in a while. For a course that has meeetings every few days, Wolves is especially badly served.In Newmarket’s defence, they do have a shuttle bus from Cambridge which is a good initiative. Haydock on the other hand advertised Newton as being the nearest rail station but buses from there go nowhere near the course (one hour walk to show for that one!)
Compare that to Pontefract which couldn’t be any closer to a station & they even put a special on after racing. Full to bursting, but there’s no trains at all on Sundays!
Coming back on topic, far more than messing with the fixture list & the pattern, surely RFC could encourage more people to come racing if they made racing easier to attend!
As to running the Middle Park and Dewhurst on the same day, it is abundantly clear that whoever thought of that little gem has no respect for the Pattern, and no brain. Do they think that running the 2yo Colts’ Championship in two legs on the same day has any purpose or sense to it? Or are they perhaps thinking of instituting a Victorian-style match run-off over 6.5F later in the day between the victors of the two divisions?
This particular red herring is a recurring theme on here at the moment, so lets put some hard facts on it.
– Only 13 horses in 13 years have attempted this particular double.
– Only 9% of Dewhurst runners will also have contested the Middle Park over the last 13 years.
– Only 3 of those 13 horses attempting the double have started at less than 5/1 in the Dewhurst, the most recent being Three Valleys (11/4) in 2003
Had they’d done nothing else, this gem alone ensures that British Racing’s 2111 Pattern will be an embarrassing laughing stock in the face of the rest of our world.
Pinza, I understand this is a subject close to your heart and you express you feelings very well on it, imo. But did you really think about that last comment before you submitted it?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.