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this will come as no major surprise , but to those of you who knew racing 20 odd years and more , its a crying shame but this great race has now been renamed the Q …….SOMETHING OR OTHER
Talk about racing history being binned and all for Racing for change to attract a wider audience ….Jeeeze what a pillage and shameful destruction of the racing game for the sake of marketing self justification
Shame on you bustards ….I hope it rains a monsoon , and you get a crowd of 25 …..
Ricky
Much more adjectival knifing of this latest RFC wheeze is to be found on the latter pages of this thread Ricky:
https://theracingforum.co.uk/horse-r … 81600.html
Never mind, Perth awaits. The racing Gods are in their heaven for three short days
The ‘wider audience’ don’t give a damn what races are called anyway, it’s only those of us that have followed racing for most of our lives that care about such things..and why should Racing for Change give a monkeys for what we think?
Wikipedia reminds me it was 1946, and a new race then
Just to prove that naff, boring racenames are not new, nor the preserve of RFC, the Wikipedia article on the Diadem contains a reference to The All-Aged Stakes established at the Royal Meeting in 1868, which became The Cork and Orrery Stakes in 1926 and The Golden Jubilee Stakes in 2002, both of which are infinitely preferable to the dismal ‘All-Aged’
It’s a rather beautiful word as well and, as it means some sort of a crown is a brilliant name for a race. I’d always assumed it was named after a famous racehorse
. Oh well, who wants a race with a lovely name; serves no purpose, does it..doesn’t make people drink more lager.
Foaled in 1914, Diadem was an absolutely top class mare who raced from 1916 through 1921. She was trained by the great George Lambton.
She won the 1000 Guineas and ran 2nd in the Oaks, but she was better at shorter, and after her year older stablemate and future mega-sire Phalaris retired at the end of the 1918 season, she twice won the July Cup and King’s Stand Stakes.
Lambton gave them an unofficial blast over 1/2 mile in 1918 and gave the nod to Diadem, although that might have been a sentimental verdict.
- Total Posts 17716
It’s a rather beautiful word as well and, as it means some sort of a crown is a brilliant name for a race.
I’d always assumed it was named after a famous racehorse
. Oh well, who wants a race with a lovely name; serves no purpose, does it..doesn’t make people drink more lager.
It was: Diadem was a superstar filly in the late 1910s (won the Coventry, 1000 Guineas, King’s Stand and what is now the Golden Jubilee).
another example of dumbing down by racing for loose change in an attempt to attract the great unwashed to the sport of kings, have they no good ideas at all, could it be that in 20 years time newmarket will resemble romford dog track with a big stage in the middle for various entertainers and the card will just be 8 x 6F sprints .
Its just tearing up the programme , and renaming it with brands nobody ever heard of , such is our dependence on Quatar cash , we will probably have to have camel races at royal ascot soon ….at least Ahmed will feel at home …
What a bunch of tossers we have in our sport , spend 2 million in one day , have a concert for the unwashed , and then adjourn to the sand in the winter racing for 1500 quid ……..next years News of the World leakage will be even better
we have no leadership whatsoever , Roy should be gone , and a strong man should be in control , first day , fire this useless bunch called RFC , and then take the Gag off Silvoir …..
Ricky
Of course, just as often, our racecourses manage to diminish the value of the old names. even when they are retained.
For as long as I can remember, Kempton have been staging the Jubilee Handicap at the beginning of May, a race that used to be an obvious target for the Lincoln winner as a stepping stone to the Hunt Cup. It’s only ten years ago, when it was a 0-110 race worth fifty grand, that Nimello did the double of Lincoln and Jubilee.
Next Monday, the Jubilee is still in the program, but it’s now titled :
kempton.co.uk Jubilee Handicap (London Mile Qualifier) 0-90
and the total prize fund is £10,301.
That’s because the tariff for a 0-90 on a Monday is £10,300, so Kempton can proudly claim that they are offering prize money higher than the tariff!
AP
I read on page 2 of today’s Post that Simon Crisford is excited by all these changes.
Judged by the accompanying picture I’d guess that Kempton Park have asked him to partake in one of their heart rate experiments, with a card of 8 of their tariff-meeting races laid on for him.
Not only are we too lose the Diadem (which as Venusian et al pointed out has been with us since 1946) but the Jockey Club Cup, with us since 1873, is alos consigned to the rubbish tip.
Why didn’t they announce this last year, instead of drip feeding us the changes? Cowardly don’t you think? And the timing comes just as the Grand National/Whip debate continues and most Flat people’s minds are focused on Newmarket this weekend.
The person in charge of it all claims in the post their aim is to create a new group of racing buffs. Surely a racing "buff" is someone who wants to learn about the history of the sport and its deep heritage? How can they do that now?
The JC Cup roll of honour includes some of the great stayers such as St Gatien (also a dead heating Derby winner), Derby/St Leger hero Silvio, the super fillies triple crown winner Pretty Polly, Hurry On (the horse 7 time Epsom Derby winning legend Fred Darling described as the best he ever trained), whilst more recently Buckskin and Ardross graced the Newmarket winners circle.
It seems even more absurd when one considers that the ever popular and mercurial grey Further Flight won this event 5 times, whilst the equally popular Persian Punch took two renewals. They were in no way as talented as the horses I listed earlier, but were in some ways more popular with the general public, and indeed the passing "once a year" racegoer – just the sort of person RFC are supposedly intent on getting "switched on" to racing.
RFC are using underhand "political" tactics to ease the changes into the racing calendar, and in doing so are destroying the very fabric of the sport we so love. As somebody commented on the RP site, they simply will not get the "champions" they so yearn for on this day because the small matter of the Arc Weekend and the Breeders Cup see to that.
It seems to me RFC see their job as to create festivals that will usurp the Longchamp and Breeders Cup meetings, and that this is best done by changing either the name of historic races or the date on which they are run – in the case of the Middle Park and Dewhurst ensuring that never again can a juvenile win both contests, so depriving racing historians of an important measure of ability and versatility.
What they fail to understand is that the only way you can attract "potential" or "recently crowned" champion horses away from Arc weekends or Breeders Cups is firstly through significantly higher levels of prize money (and lets face it, that hasn’t worked in Dubai, although to be fair the timing of the Dubai Festival is partly the problem). The next step is to convince breeders that the "Qipco Mickey Mouse Stakes" looks better on a cv than an Arc, Breeders Cup Classic, BC Turf, l’Abbaye, etc.
I am sure RFC will market their new meetings to death and probably get a bigger crowd in the first year or two, but it will soon wear thin when the newbies realise the best horses are operating in France and the States (when they have been sold a "Champions" weekend) and that they are being conned, and the old guard like us will have turned our noses up at it long ago.
a race that used to be an obvious target for the Lincoln winner as a stepping stone to the Hunt Cup. It’s only ten years ago, when it was a 0-110 race worth fifty grand, that Nimello did the double of Lincoln and Jubilee.
Indeed, and then punted ‘off’ the boards’ at York in May on Firm- Knavesmire firm – Firm Going
the answer lies in the soil
Of course, just as often, our racecourses manage to diminish the value of the old names. even when they are retained.
For as long as I can remember, Kempton have been staging the Jubilee Handicap at the beginning of May, a race that used to be an obvious target for the Lincoln winner as a stepping stone to the Hunt Cup. It’s only ten years ago, when it was a 0-110 race worth fifty grand, that Nimello did the double of Lincoln and Jubilee.
Next Monday, the Jubilee is still in the program, but it’s now titled :
kempton.co.uk Jubilee Handicap (London Mile Qualifier) 0-90
and the total prize fund is £10,301.
That’s because the tariff for a 0-90 on a Monday is £10,300, so Kempton can proudly claim that they are offering prize money higher than the tariff!
AP
That’s big of them. RFC are killing our sport, slowly but surely draining away the lifeblood of the game and turning it into another sport for pissheads and Essex girls to do away their mug money into the satchels. After racing, they can then watch McFly do their Hanson homage.
I also think it is dreadful that races named after famous people have been replaced by some long sponsored title. Fred Darling Stakes for instance, can’t remember what it’s called now. That shows what good advertising it was if it had been called the something Fred Darling Stakes I might have remembered.
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