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Two seven-runner handicap chases. Other than three seven-runner handicap chases, what more could you wish for on a Monday?
Well, perhaps two
eight
runner handicaps (where is
–[x]–
with those conspiracy theories?) might have been perfection!
The problem is not the
actual number
of Class 6 races, so much as the trend to
downgrade
other races to that level. Compare the
percentages
of Class 3-4 races this year with last, and you’ll get a nasty shock.
That – not the idea that Class 6 is mere
"bookie fodder"
– is the sticking point. Even as an Elite member I am grateful for the low class gaffs (thank goodness, this year, for
Dandino
‘s early season exploits!)
Cav , maybe your glasses are extra rose tinted out there in the desert …., so come on , how many class 6 races 14 years ago as a percentage , and how many class 3 and 4 were in the programme then , as they have all but vanished now
thanks in advance ….
Ricky
er hmm, it’s Britishness! I know we’re far away up here, but we have heard of jump racing you know!
That apart, ploughman’s, best bitter, seven runner handicap chases, marvellous!
I have no wish to incite discord within the Union, so correction willingly accepted Rob
However, to me there does seem a particular if intangible aura surrounding the (English) tracks from say Wincanton westwards and Stratford southwards that sets them apart from the rest: a reassuringly timeless Elgarian blue-remembered rustic solidity
Kelso, Musselburgh and Perth too are all splendid tracks, but exude a subtly different if equally warming feel to those at the other end of the country. Had they been supplying the "fodder" today I’d have likened them to haggis, neeps and Belhaven best: an essential and distinctive slice of Scottishness. Okay
Together (and heaven forfend I forget the Welsh tracks too) they supply we fortunate enough to live among them with something uniquely British that should be doubly treasured
Vive la difference
eh
The acceptable and pleasant phrase ‘run-of-the-mill’ used to describe the type of fare presented today seems to have been replaced by the derogatory and unpleasant ‘dross’, ‘crap’ etc. Now, while I too believe that the increase in the run-of-the-mill is not healthy, nor sustainable – as is now being discovered via ever-decreasing prizemoney – to suggest that the ‘quality’ of racing on show today is any worse than a similar day of yesteryear is ludicrous:
qv
CR’s post above
Ricky, rather than the wading in the cesspit you seem to enjoy so much, I suggest you clamber out, hose yourself down and seek the chinks in racing that still glister while you still can. Your deathwish will be fulfilled soon enough: the fixture list and structure of the racing calender will almost certainly be very different in a few years time. Your surfeit of ‘dross’ will be gone but flushed away with it, I fear, will be many a little treasure
what we had
, what we’ve got what we will lose 
As regards "punter fodder" specifically, the fact that even the four- and five-runner events at Fontwell yesterday were each drawing in over half a million quid of win market bets alone on Betfair (to say nothing of the likes of A versus B-type markets) suggests someone other than the bookies cares they exist. I imagine figures at least as voluminous on today’s action, even in the most numerically thinly contested events.
…And indeed they were. Not a single race at this afternoon’s three British fixtures failed to attract over half a million’s worth of matched bets on Betfair, and the finale at Newton Abbot even tipped over the million pound mark.
This is not racing bereft of willing consumers, be they emotional, financial or whatever else. Emphatically not.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
One just for fun for the anoraks, and in reference to a comment on this thread…
Name the last Derby winner to race on a Monday during his career?
It was always said "No good horse ever won on a Monday"
Bad news for Lord Gyllene, that.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Drone/Grayson
Are you seriously going to try and convince me that the absolute dross that raced in Newcastle today , should be treasured , in case we would lose it
And no amount of money wagered will ever compensate for the consistent dumbing down of a once great racing programme
For the record I agree Bath is a quaint experience and the racing was ok there today , but come on folks get your thinking caps on , how much more of this abysmal fare can we tolerate
ps I totally abstain Newton Abbot from these comments ,
cheers
Ricky
I’m surprised at the number of people who embrace mediocrity and all the negatives that it brings to the sport.
Not sure what point graysonscolumn’s trying to make regards the money matched on Betfair for Newton Abbott etc, it’s no more than you’d expect and is in fact far less than it was 2 or 3 years ago for similar races or for quality races now even with small fields.
How much does horse racing get from that half million matched at NA?As for Cavelino’s example of how prize money’s not really deteriorated over the years, well I’m not sure why he chose 14 years ago, maybe it was just random but if it was meant to show how things haven’t really got worse over the years,it failed miserably. While agreeing with him that it was still pretty paltry prize money then, without even taking into account inflation the prize money for that Bath meeting 14 years ago was more than 72% more than it was today plus the 4 downgraded races today, it’s probably typical though.
One just for fun for the anoraks, and in reference to a comment on this thread…
Name the last Derby winner to race on a Monday during his career?
High rise?
It was always said "No good horse ever won on a Monday"
Bad news for Lord Gyllene, that.
gc
You could add Red Rum who won a nursery at Warwick on the August Bank Holiday 1967 carrying 7-11. But if you had quoted me properly instead of trying to be a smart arse I wouldn’t have bothered pointing out that I could furnish you with a better exception than yours.
Are you seriously going to try and convince me that the absolute dross that raced in Newcastle today , should be treasured , in case we would lose it
In as many words, yep, as it’s neither dross (I do have to empathise with Robert’s revulsion for the term) nor uncherished to plenty out there. We’ve both occupied these sainted annals long enough for my position on this and all levels of racing to be pretty unequivocal.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
It was always said "No good horse ever won on a Monday"
Bad news for Lord Gyllene, that.
gc
You could add Red Rum who won a nursery at Warwick on the August Bank Holiday 1967 carrying 7-11. But if you had quoted me properly instead of trying to be a smart [expletive] I wouldn’t have bothered pointing out that I could furnish you with a better exception than yours.
For the avoidance of doubt: the adage that "no good horse ever won on a Monday" was the sole target of my throwaway remark (rather than you, any approbation you may or may not have conferred upon the adage, or any other point made in the post). I trust this helps.
Regards,
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Not sure what point graysonscolumn’s trying to make regards the money matched on Betfair for Newton Abbott etc, it’s no more than you’d expect and is in fact far less than it was 2 or 3 years ago for similar races or for quality races now even with small fields.
The point has already been made in mine and other posts on here, Eddie – namely that today’s was not racing that exists to the interest and for the benefit of no-one. The exchange trade cited is merely one manifestation of that apparent lack of apathy.
I cannot comment on how the Betfair turnover today stacks up with that of years previously, and maybe it is lower – you’re probably better placed to confirm.
At the same time, however, I’d invite you to consider that influences other than revulsion at the quality of fare on offer may lie behind that downturn, including (but not limited to) customers having taken their trade elsewhere in the wake of increased charges (actual or imagined), closed accounts, exasperation with the site crashing on busy days, and so on and so on.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I think Newcastle have been providing racing at the cheapest rate that they can get away with and I said as much in my latest blog entry. However, that doesn’t make the racing poor quality, it just makes it under-funded. Given that races were divided, and the field sizes were 16 runners or near it, then there was no shortage of takers even given low prize money.
Incidentally, many of the runners that have providing the ‘punter fodder’ were present at Musselburgh for Betfair Scottish Champions Day on Saturday. It was an excellent, well supported day’s racing with prize money of £100,000 across the card and I’m sure the Series will continue next year. If the horses come from the same pool but the prize money is better, does that make the same class of racing any more or less acceptable?
Rob
If all class 6 handicaps apart from class 5 maidens isn’t poor quality I don’t know what is. Musselburgh’s were class 4’s. Of course Newcastle had big fields, that’s what happens when poor quality is catered for at the expense of better quality.
In general, apart from the big owners, the average owner when he gets a decent horse will sell it abroad while the poor or average horse remains here. Ask any of the syndicate owners, Middleham Park, Highclere etc. Some can’t afford to keep a decent horse here with hardly any races to run in, they’re better off selling.Grayson , surely vested interest has coloured your view , if not then surely nobody can take any utterances from you seriously
Newcastle was crap Sir , and no matter how you try to paint it, bad racing will always be bad
No offence meant of course , but as of now you have just slipped into the lollipop poster category
Ricky
that doesn’t make the racing poor quality, it just makes it under-funded.
Spot on
Why do folk use the ‘Class’ of a race to determine the calibre of the contestants? The BHA’s race categorization into Classes is no more than an arbitrary distinction based on prizemoney; hence in these straitened times there’s going to be a general lowering of Class
Why dismiss a race as ‘dross’
by little more than a cursory glance at its Class?It’s much the same as saying ‘I only bet in handicaps of 0-80 or better’ by scanning the race conditions for all such handicaps and betting them, without looking what the topweight is actually running off. Many a putative 0-80 may actually be a 0-73, 0-77 or whatever; or more accurately still by considering the weight-spread and realising the race is actually, say, a 65-77 because the weights are compressed. This may mean the race is more ‘competitive’ than one which is factually a 50-80 having the the full two stone spread with the bottom weight(s) out of the handicap proper
Two races with different complexions but both described (incorrectly) in the conditons as 0-80s
Ignore the ‘Class’ and ‘Conditions’ and consder the horses and likely shape ‘n’ pace of the race. You never know, you may well find a sound bet on a ‘dross’
Monday at Newcastle and sweet f a at the forthcoming Leger meeting with all its 0-100s and Class 1s
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