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Fill yer boots , the dirty channel starts at midday , showing racing from Stratford ….make sure to lose plenty , after all you have to keep those bookies happy
It would appear when the Bookies say Jump , racing jumps ……
What a sad state of affairs
Meanwhile over in Newmarket some real quality is on show ….but you ATR freaks will miss most of it !!!
IMO
Ricky
There was one of those last Friday at Brighton. However, I have looked at both cards and nowhere can I see an instruction that says ‘You must bet on this card’!
If there’s a solution to the problem you perceive then it lies with the betting public…., in my opinion
Rob
Stratford card looks very decent to me. Certainly some interesting contests.
Obviously I’d be a ‘freak’ if I watched it on ATR, so I’ll just flick over surreptitiously for the action in between the Ryder Cup and hope nobody ever knows how dirty I feel.
Mike
True Rob , punters will vote with their cash
However that was not the point , the point was , bookies say I want …….racing rulers say , yes Sir , straight away sir….imo
Mike Quality as always
Ricky
I saw an article recently saying matinee racing was introduced a few years ago but was quickly dropped due to lack of interest and poor betting turnover, so obviously despite being a total failure they bring it back again!
Who’s actually in charge of racing, doesn’t look like its the BHA or whatever they’re called nowadays.
ATR is ok with me. £6 a month online, relaxed presenters and not too ‘dry’ like RUK. Bring on the 12 o’clock!
Who’s actually in charge of racing, doesn’t look like its the BHA or whatever they’re called nowadays.
The BHA are hamstrung by the way the sport is funded. As long as it remains Levy funded then quantity will always be the key word with the payer of the piper calling the tune.
The matter will presumably come to head in time, when the ‘alternative to the Levy’ has to be found. I hope that means the sport will be run for the helath of the sport rather than the profitably of the bookmakers.
Bill Faqrnsworth, General Manager at Musselburgh, geernally tries to put on the best racing he can and the vast majority cards at the course have at least one £10,000 pot. In Racing Post a year or two back he told that the course makes more from a card of Class 5 and 6 handicaps than it does from their prestige days. I don’t believe he’s happy with this state of affairs but even the best have to answer to the bean counters.
Rob
Rob , good post
as long as courses profit from running dross, with 2500 per race, bookies will lap it up and make even more money from the mugs who bet on it
There is no real incentive for courses to make an effort to put on proper racing , sadly with our funding being bookie dependant , and the BHA giving into their demands at every opportunity , the quality of racing will continue to be top heavy with dross
imo
Ricky
Call me thick but I don’t really get the massive qualm.
If the demands of finding runners for the dross racing are easily fulfilled by owners and trainers then I don’t see the issue. Watching 0-60 sprints on sand is really not my cup of tea (incidentally, I don’t believe I’ve seen even one of Dvinsky’s 218 races) but I exercise my right to not watch same. The dross racing is a kink for many a purist so why should someone else’s joy infuriate me? There’s still a programme for the "watchable" horses and they’re not going to run every week in any case.
What I strongly object to is the elimination of Novice Chases in lieu of "better racing". After all, the mug punters and handicap sages already have enough dross on which to burn their fingers. This is an area where the bookies should keep their grubby little mitts to themselves.
IMO
Why is it better to squash all the meetings between 2.00 and 6.00. especially on Saturday’s and Bank Holiday’s. Makes more sense to me to have at least one meeting start at 12.00, they should do it more often rather than just on a Friday.
Split between handicaps/non-handicaps if only other Courses would follow suit. As for the early start if Courses are happy to stage them then why not? Some racegoers might actually prefer an early start while the rabble are just getting out of bed.
Ricky, the volume of dross racing will only be reduced by reducing the overall volume of racing. The sheer number of horses in training means that there needs to be enough races for them to compete in. Breeding is inexact but the waste products i.e. horses of little ability, are living creatures and while it would be far more economical to cull them than train them, our humanity is not given to such cold realities.
the volume of dross racing will only be reduced by reducing the overall volume of racing. The sheer number of horses in training means that there needs to be enough races for them to compete in.
We’ve just been told this week that the overall number of fixtures in the new list will show a slight increase on this year.
That’s with two racecourses, Folkestone and Hereford, due to close.
Not much chance of the so-called dross decreasing…I was at Stratford yesterday and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.
There was a reasonable size crowd – although half an hour before the opener it didn’t look promising.
Two of the races had £6 – £7k first prize money and a couple of the top stables sent runners.
My biggest concern about Stratford yesterday was it potentially clashed with Worcester just 25 miles down the road – had Worcester not been called off I wonder if as many punters / bookies would have turned up at Stratford.
I also remember the previous disastrous attempt at matinee racing – I recall a meeting one Saturday at Warwick which had an 11:00 start – it had as much atmosphere and as big a crowd as an AS fixture at Wolverhampton on a wet January Monday afternoon.
Let’s not kid ourselves these matinee meetings are put on solely for the bookmakers to give some UK live action for the lunchtime punters. The only potential clash with the Stratford opener yesterday was had the 11:59 at Sprint Valley gone off late.
My biggest concern about Stratford yesterday was it potentially clashed with Worcester just 25 miles down the road – had Worcester not been called off I wonder if as many punters / bookies would have turned up at Stratford.
It’s absolutely ludicrous and beyond belief that the fixture planning supremos could even consider scheduling Stratford and Worcester on the same day.
It’s completely crazy and defies all logic. It’s like the occasions when Nottingham and Southwell, also drawing from the same catchment area, have been scheduled on the same day.
All it’s doing by having fixtures clashing unnecessarily is depleting further the potential weekday crowd, which would usually be pretty low anyway.
Sometimes York and Doncaster or Hexham and Newcastle have been scheduled for the same day but the difference has been that one of them has been an evening meeting.
Obviously these matinee meetings are intended primarily to benefit the betting shops but if the courses get a reasonable attendance and some people, especially locals, are prepared to turn out earlier and have a good day out, as in the case of Stratford, then perhaps there’s a benefit worth having.
The following excerpt from trainer Nick Alexander’s excellent blog is telling:
‘One or two entries for Hexham next Friday, I suppose I should be happy that I don’t have anything for the 3m 0-95 Chase (£2600 total prize fund!) but I feel strangely disappointed, my old hunting ground. I see there is then a 2m 7f 0-95 at Kelso 2 days later, both races designed for the same horses then nothing similar for a month, another masterful stroke of race planning. The problem is I doubt either racecourse is aware of each other’s programme – bonkers; and when Kelso tried to organise a meeting so that everyone could sit down together BHA raceplanning were unable to attend (unable or unwilling?).’
The last sentence is the most telling. At least a suggestion that Kelso racecourse are prepared to make the effort, but it seems the the BHA are not!
Rob
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