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What are the plans for Manchester is that turf, polytrack or both. I don’t see why Lingfield dont use the turf more it looks a really good turf course underused in my opinion
The only people in my opinion who will be weeping are the big bookmakers..
Now this might seem like a wacky idea but an all weather track up in Aberdeen could be a goer,my train of thought is this,I go all over Scotland mostly to jumps and there are always busloads of Aberdonians with loads of money(oil money) to spend,if they were to run 2 meetings a week(maybe Friday/Saturday) it could work.
What are the plans for Manchester is that turf, polytrack or both.
I’m lining up to be contradicted here, and fair play if rightly so, but I think it’s an absolute prerequisite of most, if not all, of the recently-submitted racecourse applications that an artificial track has to be provided.
Certainly in the case of Manchester, and the missing-in-action Pembrey / Ffos-Llas project before it, this would have been in addition to a turf Flat and jumps circuit. Given the recent desecration of Haydock, and the loss of the fine old original Manchester track on the banks of the Irwell in the 1960s, I would welcome the addition of a new jumps track in the North West in particular.
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.
Now this might seem like a wacky idea but an all weather track up in Aberdeen could be a goer,my train of thought is this,I go all over Scotland mostly to jumps and there are always busloads of Aberdonians with loads of money(oil money) to spend,if they were to run 2 meetings a week(maybe Friday/Saturday) it could work.
Not a bad idea from the point of view of target audience – the decent attendances at Perth and the point-to-point at Balcormo Mains prove there is enough of an appetite for at least certain forms of horse racing in that corner of the world, and probably all.
However, the reservations Alan had about a suitable pool of horses to keep the field sizes up at Musselburgh’s now-apocryphal artifical surface racecourse are bound to be even greater that much further up the country, I would have thought. Moreover, the logistics / safety aspects of sailing in the worst winter weather means you couldn’t really rely on Irish trainers sending horses over in large enough quantity to bolster field sizes constantly.
Ffos-Llas would have struggled to keep field sizes up for sand racing during the worst ravages of a British winter as well, I reckon, no matter how big a catchment area it would enjoy. Taking it to its logical extreme, I’m not sure a meeting in which Ron Harris is the only trainer of sand surface horses able to get his string to the course would make for too great a spectacle!
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.
Run-of-the-mill racing it maybe but when the ground elsewhere is hock-deep or frozen, chances are it will be half-decent or frost free at Musselburgh.
Definitely. Musselburgh, and to a certain extent Fakenham, seem to exist in their own little micro-climates which renders them mostly impervious to the worse ravages of the British winter. I think the executive there probably missed a little bit of a trick not putting in for two or three extra winter jumps cards in the great fixture scrimmage of the last few months.
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.
Unfortunately if the weather continues to be excessively wet in years to come more courses will try for AW to avoid the losses of cancelling fixtures
As others have said, Musselburgh is one of the last courses to be worried about that.
I was there last month and the “good to soft” going would be called the fast side of good at most tracks.
Steve
Musselburgh may have a micro climate but it certainly ain’t a warm one! Jumping at the Honest Toun course in mid winter with the wind blowing off the North Sea is a cold experience .
The decent going at Musselburgh in the winter is due to the ground having excellent natural drainage. When the engineers were investigating the composition of the ground they dug a series of holes about four feet deep alongside the flat track. Beneath the turf was about six inches of soil and the rest was sand.
I’m glad to see the Scottish Executive have come to a decision most on this thread agree with!
Musselburgh may have a micro climate but it certainly ain’t a warm one! Jumping at the Honest Toun course in mid winter with the wind blowing off the North Sea is a cold experience .
Ironically though, its that wind off the North Sea, and the proximity of the sea, that protects the course more than most from winter frosts. That was touted as one of the reasons for the commencement of jumping at Musselburgh.
Rob
APRACING wrote, ‘No doubt people on here will continue to knock ‘AW’ racing as though it were some totally different sport. In my view it isn’t – it’s just flat racing’.
People like you deserve a good kicking for supporting this excrement.
All weather racing is for knobends and is simply betting shop fodder for morons.
Well thought out post there, Kebab.
It will surely go down as one of this forum’s most erudite offerings.
Colin
Kebab,
Your arrogance (in dictating to others what they should or shouldn’t like) is exceeded only by your ignorance.
AP
kebab – “pieces of meat roasted on a skewer, ( http://www.dictionary.com )
I’m not the greatest fan of AWT racing, but as it has provided me with my two experiences of winners in ownership I will be eternally grateful for its existence.
What is happening to this place? New members coming on here with the intellect of pond life.
Wallace,
Humblest apologies.
I didn’t realize that one had to be a sanctimonious wankstain to participate on this knobend’s paradise.
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