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GC comments:-“A suggestion made with the very best of intentions, but aside from very exaggerated examples – let’s say for the sake of argument a Roselier animal bred out of Dubacilla or Mrs Be running in a 14f bumper – I wonder how this could ever be implemented in a foolproof and consistent manner. Out of interest, Tony, what would your criterion be for "false trip" – x number of furlongs further than the given horse’s sire or dam was ever capable of staying, or something else? Genuinely interested.“
Bumper form is not an h`capping issue as it doesn`t happen,however,i can see what you are asking and we could take it even further by setting your example as two miles over hurdles around Fakenham on hard ground carrying alot of condition before turning up at Towcester 6 months later on soft ground over three miles and of course fences
The h`capper has a lot of flexibility in this (ie raises horses 7lb for coming 2nd alla “Last flight“ today) so if he see`s an “In the wings“ from the Prescott stable racing over an easy 5 Furlongs on fast ground as a backward two year old he should sort of know he`s being conned to a certain extent, you can`t neccessarily take the route of looking at the breeding and assume that offspring will be suited by the same distance,however,with a well known exposed “Sire“ and to lesser extent the dam (has they don`t get so many chances to set a trend) i think the h`capper should be able to get a clear picture,the three run rule should only apply to horses that are obviously being given a chance to perform on merit, if i was the h`capper i would simply refuse to h`cap something that was so blatant, i would put it to the likes of Prescott that i want to see the horse over its proper trip then we can speak h`cap marks!!
In France the h`capper is blunt, we recently tried to get one h`capped that was racing over its correct distance(Sort of anyway) but he still wouldn`t give us a mark until we raced on a grade one track!!
I think a little scope is fair but not when its all so apparent!!
For the sake of semi-brevity I’ll restrict it to remedying the fixture-list mess:
1) The turf Flat season to start the Saturday after the Grand National with a seven day ‘festival’ comprising a two day Lincoln meeting, three day Craven meeting and two day Greenham meeting. Scottish National to follow on the Saturday.
2) Racing to be allowed on Good Friday to prevent the current fixture problems caused by the ‘moveable feast’ of Easter.
3) The turf Flat season to end with a two day Champions’ meeting at Newmarket over the last weekend in October.
4) AW racing to be confined to the turf close season.
5) A ‘core’ NH season to start on the first weekend in October with revamped two-day Charisma/Charlie Hall meetings at Kempton/Wetherby follwed by the first Cheltenham meeting the following weekend.
6) The ‘core’ NH season to run until the last weekend in May, climaxing with a valuable two day Aintree meeting to replace their un-noticed, un-loved Friday evening meeting currently held around that time. The Cheltenham/Stratford Hunter Chase meetings to be run on two evenings in the preceding week
7) ‘Summer jumping’ to start following Royal Ascot and be restricted to midweek evenings and Sundays until the school holidays when Newton Abbot will be allowed to race when they wish to cater for tourists from Torbay
‘Summer jumping’ to finish on the last Sunday in August with a triple-header from Perth/Market Rasen/Newton Abbot with one valuable feature event from each course: 3m handicap chase, 2m handicap chase, 2m handicap hurdle.9) September to be the NH close season.
10) During the evening racing sesaon:
Two afternoon, one evening meeting on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays.
Two afternoon, two evening meetings on Thursdays and Fridays.
Four afternoon meetings on Saturdays, no evening meetings.
Three Sunday meetings.
Negotiations to be held with the Irish racing authorites to ensure their race meetings complement ours (and vice versa) e.g them having an evening meeting on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays giving a total of two. And ensuring the race times don’t clash.
Outside of the evening racing season:
Three meetings a day, four on Saturdays. During the ‘core’ NH season at least one NH fixture a day, and during the turf close season at least two NH fixtures.
11) One blank Monday a month during the evening racing season to give all involved a rest from the daily grind.
…pie in the sky…pigs might fly…pipe-dream…on…and on…and on
9) September to be the NH close season.
To all intents and purposes it already is – the tally of 15 or 16 meetings is the lowest of any month (including those months presumed to be quieter, such as June and July), and it includes a six-day period without a jumps fixture not repeated (I don’t think) at any other time of year.
Notwithstanding the fact I registered my all-time best result as a paper tipster – a 3,400-1 six-timer – at Stratford last September, it’s comfortably my least favourite racing month of the year. Most of the summer jumping courses are starting to look a bit worse for wear by then, most of the summer jumping horses are fully exposed and a bit jaded, and the courses returning to action from their summer breaks often produce some indifferent ground having not required to be part of the same watering programme in force on the summer jumping tracks. Both of my visits to Hexham, for example, have been to its September fixture, and both were run on some really horrible surfaces.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
7) ‘Summer jumping’ to start following Royal Ascot and be restricted to midweek evenings and Sundays until the school holidays when Newton Abbot will be allowed to race when they wish to cater for tourists from Torbay
If you’re defining a concept of “Summer Jumping” here, Drone, would that be with a view to a distinct championship being introduced for it?
There are at least two definitions of “Summer Jumping” on the go already, neither of which may be entirely satisfactory.
If we are talking about the suite of meetings specifically introduced into that part of the calendar on which no jumps meetings took place at all before the season went 12-monthly back in 1995, then the season is defined as from the first meeting after the Horse & Hound weekend at Stratford until the last meeting before Bangor’s July Friday meeting.
If we are talking about the prevailing media interpretation of the season, and certainly the one that Channel 4 increasingly uses to frame its awarding of certain accolades, then the season is defined as from the first meeting after Betfred Gold Cup Day until the Bluesq Day at Market Rasen at the end of September.
The latter model is problematic in that it immediately casts events like the Swinton Hurdle as events of the new season when in actual fact there is no other significant 2m-ish handicap hurdle race to follow it for over two months. Maybe a mix of the two would be more sensible, with a start immediately post-Horse & Hound (seems silly to count the last four weeks of hunter chases as part of the new season when there then aren’t any more such contests for eight months) and a finish at Rasen in September.
Other ideas?
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
‘Summer jumping’ to finish on the last Sunday in August with a triple-header from Perth/Market Rasen/Newton Abbot with one valuable feature event from each course: 3m handicap chase, 2m handicap chase, 2m handicap hurdle.The best feature of the summer jumping calendar is that after years of evolution you now have a programme of big races nicely spaced throughout the summer months, and it’d seem a shame to start mucking that around to any great extent.
June – City of Perth Gold Cup, Perth
July – Summer National, Uttoxeter
Summer Hurdle, Market Rasen
Summer Plate, Market Rasen
August – Galway Plate, Galway
Lord Mildmay meeting (2 days), Newton Abbot
September – Bluesq Day, Market Rasen(with numerous supporting 0-130ish contests at Stratford interspersed throughout, plus a few more at Southwell, Worcester, Hereford and Hexham).
To that end I wouldn’t be too keen on this suggestion of yours, Drone, as I’m not sure it would actually complement the existing programme as well as hoped, and I’m also not sure the pool of good jumps horses in action in August is quite sizeable enough to patronise three big meetings on the same day adequately.
Finally, bear in mind also that Cartmel will be in action on the Saturday and Monday either side, and nothing short of nuking that venue is going to get it to give up those fixtures.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
All fair points Jeremy and to my eternal shame I forgot all about the Aug bank holiday fare at dear old Cartmel.
Wouldn’t be looking to move such as Perth’s Gold Cup and Rasen’s Summer Plate but augment them with new races as suggested. I firmly believe all ‘seasons’ should begin and end with a bang, something that has long been woefully lacking save for Whitbread day.
Like you, I think the summer jumping season has evolved into a reasonable shape and I see no need to mess with existing race pattern. Reason I suggested restricting it to evenings and sundays is a) it’s (imo) ideal ‘family’ fodder b) it will go some way to giving it a clearly defined identity from the Flat.
Really only musings on what I’ve long regarded as a bloated, frightful mess of a fixture list and of course a whole lot easier to relay such musings to a message-board than actually implement.
8 eight) seems to have metamorphosed into a smiley
Ta, Drone. As a huge summer jumping fan / apologist (delete as applicable) the programme over the warmer months is something I’m desperately keen to see got right. It’s about three-quarters of the way there now, which is a hell of an improvement on five years ago.
A couple more improvements I would like to see would be:
a) the executive of one of the stiffer courses in the country being talked into putting on two or three fixtures during July and August. As I have mentioned elsewhere, once Hexham and Towcester finish at the end of June there is absolutely nowhere for slowpokes to go outside of the Summer National, unless they hit really lucky and get a true-run 3m chase at Worcester in hock-deep going. Could either of the above be talked into running right through the year, perhaps? If not, how about Exeter?
b) staying with Worcester, I would love someone to put the rocket up Arena Leisure’s arse and compel them to put on some proper contests with proper prizemoney at that track a bit more often. Aside from a couple of Class 2 races, which I think have already either been and gone or have been rained off this season, Pitchcroft is consistently the poor relation in the summer jumping roster of courses, and ascribing grand titles such as "The Home Of Summer Jumping Handicap Chase" to 0-85, £2,500 contests verges on the utterly delusional.
The older folks among you will remember there used to be the King John Chase over 3m5f at Worcester up until around 20 years ago. A revival of that as a suitably financially endowed Summer National trial or late summer-season marathon could only be a good thing. That Arena is likely to take quite a financial hit restoring Southwell (if it chooses to) lessens the chances of any such prizemoney overhaul, though.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
The trouble with Exeter is the lack of a proper watering system. Time was they sort of alternated with the Abbot during the ‘grockle’ month of August but the frequent bone-hard ground on the chase course was finally – and correctly – deemed unsuitible so the meetings were scrapped. Other than that a great track.
I too would be quite keen on the idea of Hexham racing through the summer as being set at a fair altitude is a) likely to be pleasingly cool during the ‘normal’ stultifying dog-days of high summer b) the chance of rainfall hence reasonable going is greater up on’t fells c) opportunities galore for northern based ageing sluggards over 3m1f and 4m.
Worcester strikes me as a very fair course with an unexacting topography and middle-of-the road fences so yes it fully deserves a few decent contests.
A lot of answers seem geared to a "how would you improve racing for the anoraks and addicts" question
Sal’s points are good and Venusian is right when talking about market share
I think if we are talking about racegoing, apart from more free days, the merging of grandstand and members is a good idea for many fixtures. Kempton do this a lot now and it makes for a nicer atmosphere. The general racegoer doesnt feel excluded
In terms of promoting the sport, it needs to be seen more as a interesting mental exercise. Its odd that so many in professional work prefer betting on knee jerk bone headed mediums such as football and internet poker when surely racing would be more rewarding. needs to shake off the snobs and slobs image
Abolish the dress code. It causes so many problems.
Fair enough for those who want to dress up but don’t exclude those who are clean and casual but not shirted, tied, and jacketed.
As clivex says, let’s have most of the racecourse open to all, and a small area for those who need segregation.For the sake of semi-brevity I’ll restrict it to remedying the fixture-list mess:
1) The turf Flat season to start the Saturday after the Grand National with a seven day ‘festival’ comprising a two day Lincoln meeting, three day Craven meeting and two day Greenham meeting. Scottish National to follow on the Saturday.
2) Racing to be allowed on Good Friday to prevent the current fixture problems caused by the ‘moveable feast’ of Easter.
3) The turf Flat season to end with a two day Champions’ meeting at Newmarket over the last weekend in October.
4) AW racing to be confined to the turf close season.
5) A ‘core’ NH season to start on the first weekend in October with revamped two-day Charisma/Charlie Hall meetings at Kempton/Wetherby follwed by the first Cheltenham meeting the following weekend.
6) The ‘core’ NH season to run until the last weekend in May, climaxing with a valuable two day Aintree meeting to replace their un-noticed, un-loved Friday evening meeting currently held around that time. The Cheltenham/Stratford Hunter Chase meetings to be run on two evenings in the preceding week
7) ‘Summer jumping’ to start following Royal Ascot and be restricted to midweek evenings and Sundays until the school holidays when Newton Abbot will be allowed to race when they wish to cater for tourists from Torbay
‘Summer jumping’ to finish on the last Sunday in August with a triple-header from Perth/Market Rasen/Newton Abbot with one valuable feature event from each course: 3m handicap chase, 2m handicap chase, 2m handicap hurdle.9) September to be the NH close season.
10) During the evening racing sesaon:
Two afternoon, one evening meeting on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays.
Two afternoon, two evening meetings on Thursdays and Fridays.
Four afternoon meetings on Saturdays, no evening meetings.
Three Sunday meetings.
Negotiations to be held with the Irish racing authorites to ensure their race meetings complement ours (and vice versa) e.g them having an evening meeting on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays giving a total of two. And ensuring the race times don’t clash.
Outside of the evening racing season:
Three meetings a day, four on Saturdays. During the ‘core’ NH season at least one NH fixture a day, and during the turf close season at least two NH fixtures.
11) One blank Monday a month during the evening racing season to give all involved a rest from the daily grind.
…pie in the sky…pigs might fly…pipe-dream…on…and on…and on
Good post apart from one suggestion. And that’s running the Champion Stakes meeting on the same weekend as the Breeders’ Cup is now normally held.
2 or 3 thougts that spring to mind.
Prize money needs to start rising, I find it incredible that there was a massive 13% decrease in prize money this year. Many races are worth less now than they were worth many years ago not even taking into account inflation. Look at the value of the Listed races at Sandown today, it’s pathetic.
Wall to wall racing, apparently the best in the world and 2 racing channels yet prize money seems in terminal decline.Stop overwatering of flat racecourses.
Get rid of 48 hour decs
Great post Drone.
Lots of common sense there.Here’s my go.
1) Charge “primary” exchange Layers a higher rate of commission with the difference going to racing. Say, 10%. Some geezers are making absolute fortunes laying on the exchanges. I don’t mind this at all – if racing benefits.
2) The HRA and Tote to come up with a ten year plan to supercede the off-course bookmaking structure, (organisations who clearly feel horse racing is a trojan horse which attracts customers to play on their highly profitable amusements with prizes/screens of hypnotic misery).
This should have been done in 1963 and one day, we might have the chance once more, before its too late. Off course bookmakers can become sub-contract agents of a Tote system on a commission basis which, if negotiated, could equal their current profits on the sport. Then they can continue to market their addictive games and prize money becomes internationally comparable.
3) Eliminate summer jumping altogether, with the jumps season ending at Haydock and beginning at Chepstow. Seaside tracks like Newton Abbot can organise “custom” fixtures not funded by existing structures, if necessary. This is for animal welfare reasons, and to reduce the danger of overkill.
4) Treble the prize money on the Eclipse, King George and York International to enable these historic races to compete properly on an equal footing in a global market for top quality horses.
5) Ensure each meeting has middle to long distance race, preferably two. Racing is in danger of resembling some strange perceptual illusion with all the racing looking identical and only the purists able to spot the difference.
But of course, I’m a Cuban dwarf who can see the aeroplane full of rich American tourists swooping over the mangrove forest. (“The Plane…The Plane!!!)
Max, increasing prize money for group races is a waste of money. The owners of horses running in these races are not interested in a few grand more if they win.
Wallace, do you remember three or four years ago, when Hard Buck came over for the King George and finished second at 33/1?
I vaguely remember the connections saying more US horses would make the trek, but there is little incentive because of the prize money, (admittedly the exchange rate doesn’t help in this case).
The KG last year lacked pre-race enthusiasm. Everyone seems to favour the Arc these days. When I was starting out, the Arc was very much an afterthought to the KG, which was THE all-aged race. I can’t think of any way of getting international trainers to actually target the race other than a massive increase in prize money.
With Japan, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong both increasingly supplying horses and top quality racing, plus the Breeders Cup events in the States and most impressively, the Dubai Carnival providing legitimate targets for top quality racehorses, we have to compete somehow to retain a pre-eminent position. Imo, of course.
…I vaguely remember the connections saying more US horses would make the trek, but there is little incentive because of the prize money, (admittedly the exchange rate doesn’t help in this case)….
On the contrary, the currently enfeebled dollar should make venturing abroad to race more attractive, not less, to Americans.
‘Summer jumping’ to finish on the last Sunday in August with a triple-header from Perth/Market Rasen/Newton Abbot with one valuable feature event from each course: 3m handicap chase, 2m handicap chase, 2m handicap hurdle.
Lots of common sense there.
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