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ELEVEN race meetings in Britain and Ireland today after two blank days.
Wouldn’t something like four Christmas Eve, three Christmas Day and four today have made so much more sense?
Don’t give me all that nonsense about people in the racing and betting industries needing time off over Christmas – they work in the ENTERTAINMENT industry, it goes with the territory.
I wouldn’t mind betting some of those stable and betting shop staff sat down to Christmas lunch cooked and served by someone in the hospitality industry yesterday, an industry where working over Christmas is accepted.
What do we think?
Zero meetings, zero meetings, ELEVEN – it is a bit mental, isn’t it?
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Public transport is next to non existent on Christmas Day, which would make travelling to meetings difficult for many people. It also finishes earlier on Christmas Eve.
Would racecourses get particularly large attendances on either of those days? People have got family things to do.
“Public transport is next to non existent on Christmas Day”
And yet pubs/hotels/restaurants are packed out with people eating Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day – if it doesn’t stop them doing a roaring trade, why would it stop racecourses?
Yes, you’re right – 11, forgot Wolverhampton! – duly edited.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Are there trains/tube/buses to Kempton today as elsewhere public transport is next to non-existent on Boxing Day too, so I don’t think the lack of it on Christmas Day would be a problem given the 11 meetings today will be well attended
Boxing Day, in time-honoured tradition, is the day to get out and about after the day, in time-honoured tradition, of slumping over-indulgence so I very much doubt the opportunity to ‘come racing’ on Christmas Day would be met with much enthusiasm
Christmas Eve maybe: morning kick-off, finish circa 2.30pm perhaps
Those in the hospitality industry are indeed busy on the high days and holidays afforded the public-at-large; the difference with those and those who work in racing being that the former get time off when the masses resume their regulation weekday 9-5 but the latter don’t, being expected to continue the daily grind day-in day-out: Kempton today, Lingfield on a wet Monday in January. Spot the difference: same ol’ same ol’ same ol’…
Fair comment, Drone.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Fagin is 177 years old this today.
Oliver Crisp is long dead.
The days of extortion
never ended but the thin legged Jarrowers and
more recently the Mafia Mums
fattish legs both marched in unison and decades apart to
help restore some balance
to the oppressed and the ever vigilant RSPCA and the World Wildlife gaspers are ever watchful for any gangs unlawfully burning chestnuts this Xmas.As I remember the racing pages were littered with little meetings back in the days of real racing. There may have been as many as 23 and the overounds were awful as bookies rearguarded and couldn’t keep up.
Punters can cope quite comfortably with three meetings possibly four depending on how obsessed they are. My betting on Saturday stretched me to five meetings and a marathon fourteen and a half hours of calculations. I’mToday I very much hope I can fit in the Hill. Tax return headaches return this week and I doubt I will be betting again until the New Year.I may cheat a few races.
So what’s the solution.Proper plum duff for jockeys on the day of Our Lord. Give everyone a day off.
Six today four on the big Eve if ten are planned. If more then a six to four ratio.
“And yet pubs/hotels/restaurants are packed out with people eating Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day”.
It is not really comparing like with like. I went to a pub yesterday and it was indeed packed out – but everyone would have walked there. Likewise, a lot of restaurant trade will be local with only short car journeys at the most. Driving a long way to a race meeting would not have the same appeal.
Wouldn’t the law have to be changed to allow racing on Christmas Day?
“Are there trains/tube/buses to Kempton today as elsewhere public transport is next to non-existent on Boxing Day too”.
That is not the case everywhere. I have just got a bus into Liverpool and Merseyrail is running frequent trains to Aintree.
Why is having eleven meetings a bit mental? They are spread around the country (could have had one though in Scotland to be honest), so they allow a wider range of people to attend, if they want to. Historically, what are the attendances today around the country? Personally, I don’t want racing on Christmas Eve and Day, as it makes Kempton a bit more special.
“Historically, what are the attendances today around the country?”
I expect they are quite high, especially at the tracks where a Boxing Day fixture is long established.
Attendances going back to 1989 can be checked via the attached link (Drone made me aware of it):
Personally, I think we have too many days racing as it is.
On the flip side a King George on Christmas day after lunch would at least give us something worthwhile to watch on Christmas day
Blackbeard to conquer the World
The Aintree meeting today wasn’t needed nor was them getting the Tolworth or the George Formby as they have renamed it and then to top it all off, the planners decide that Aintree’s races should only be 3-5 mins apart from those at Wetherby……surely they must have run out of feet to keep shooting themselves in by now
Everybody ( bar me obvs ) is in holiday , get them through the gates , they just need to be spaced properly
Ian Davies says
And yet pubs/hotels/restaurants are packed out with people eating Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day – if it doesn’t stop them doing a roaring trade, why would it stop racecourses?
Speaking as someone who had a family member in/running a restaurant in a local hotel.
The staff are given either Christmas or New Year off, so staff get sometime with family.
Same with public transport, shops used to but now only get Christmas Day off with Boxing Day and New Year voluntary.The best things in life are free.
But you can give them to the birds and bees.That’s a shame Tolworth gone from Sandown LD73 , didn’t realise that , used to be a good days racing with the Mildmay Cazalet Chase on the card as well. Got an old photo album with photos I took at the start of the 84 race when I was a kid , Francome on a horse called Ihaventalight who ended up pretty decent I recall . Was a good race back in the day .
Well, I fully agree with the initial post. I was asking myself the same question since they got back to Sunday racing. We didn’t have that in the 90s and there weren’t evening meetings on a Tuesday either.
If the BHA could get rid of one Racing Sunday a month and provide stable staff with more free time for their own, they could easily split the 11 Boxing Day meetings and have five meetings on the 25th and another six on the 26th.
Yesterday’s race planning was a joke: Aintree and Wetherby five minutes apart and overall 14 meetings.
It doesn’t matter to if it’s five or fifteen meetings on a day, I will concentrate on a maximum of five.
You need time to place your bets and YOU WANT TO WATCH THE RACES…..
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