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Hello,
I am very puzzled..why have good meetings at Chester, Haydock and York all on the same bloody day???
Compound that, what I see as an error of judgement, with good cards at Goodwood and Newbury??
Who is it that fixes the season’s meetings..a four year old child???
regards,
doyley
Putting Haydock back until tomorrow would be ideal.
They will undoubtedly get a good crowd today, but with this weather, it would be a lock out tomorrow.
- Total Posts 17716
I am very puzzled..why have good meetings at Chester, Haydock and York all on the same bloody day???
The Chester / Haydock clash is especially brainless. Doubtless the course managements themselves are in part to blame, but whoever is in charge of race planning needs to given either (a) more control over events, or (b) the boot.
I can’t recall such an appallingly mismanaged bunch of weekend cards (at least, not since the same weekend last year!)
The Chester / Haydock clash is especially brainless.
I have no quibble with tracks such as Haydock & Chester racing on the same day, after all both tracks will be packed but I do quibble with 4 quality meetings on one afternoon and mainly rubbish the rest of the week.
- Total Posts 17716
The Chester / Haydock clash is especially brainless.
I have no quibble with tracks such as Haydock & Chester racing on the same day, after all both tracks will be packed…
Indeed they will: but given their proximity quite a few folk are annual members at both, and they certainly have cause to be peeved.
Couldnt agree more, its bordering on ludicrous.
How anyone with a brain could not think to themselves "if we spread these out we will widen the appeal" is beyond me.
Sometimes i despair
Hello,
Just reviewed the Bath meeting…it is absolutely dire..
A beautiful Sunday, mid summer, and probably up to a quarter of a million people who may have considered an afternoon’s racing are denied. After the cancellations/postponements during the winter you would think the Racing authorities would target days like today…but oh no, all eggs in one basket on Saturday….dear, dear me….
An absolute glorious (literally) opportunity lost…
regards,
doyley
The BHA gave up the old ’50-mile rule’ to fend off the OFT.
Chester would have known that York and Haydock were already racing on this date when it bid for what looks like a surrendered fixture from Doncaster. They obviously made a commercial decision that they could make sufficient profit for it to be worthwhile.
For a popular course, a summer Saturday will normally be a cash cow, regardless of where else is staging racing that day, whereas, generally, they have apparently struggled to get value from Sunday fixtures.
You have to remember that the sort of customer in which racecourses are interested will mostly be oblivious to the other options available that day and that, for customers in their target market, it’s preferable to wake up with a banging hangover on Sunday than Monday.
Folks its about the levy , RFC has collaborated with the bookies , the plan is to bombard punters on the 2 busiest racing days friday and saturday , loads of fixtures, and loads of impossible races
Just wait and see what 2011 is like
Joe and Josephine Punter are just levy fodder , so hurry up and lose plenty , its all for the good of racing !!!
Right !!!
Ricky
According to the RP there were over 24,000 people at Chester yesterday, so it looks like they were right about the viability of the fixture.
We might wish things were different, but this is the way of the world, for the moment anyway.
Had Saturday’s afternoon meetings been spread across the weekend, it seems probable that the number of attendees would have been similar. Would the amount spent on the LCDs of booze and betting have been the same? Perhaps not.
Saturday did, however, represent an opportunity missed. Staging Haydock in the afternoon and Chester in the evening would have allowed coach and stag parties to attend both meetings, thereby swelling the coffers even more. The only requirement is for both courses to reach a sensible agreement on the last and first race times of the respective meetings, not too difficult I’m sure.
Perhaps there are more fundamental issues, rather than the appearance of saddlecloths, decimal odds and the transfer of the Champion Stakes, to consider. There’s only one way to settle this…..
Chester would have known that York and Haydock were already racing on this date when it bid for what looks like a surrendered fixture from Doncaster. They obviously made a commercial decision that they could make sufficient profit for it to be worthwhile.
And I’m sure it will have been a decision vindicated by numbers – the website already had the availability of tickets downgraded to "last few left", or words to that effect, when I was considering my Saturday racing options two days before. In the end I played it safer and plumped for Lower Machen, itself not exactly sparsely attended.
gc
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.
What about the stupidity of having two Yorkshire racecourse, Beverley and Catterick both racing on Saturday afternoon? Total stupidity and proves that no-one with any brains works at race planning at the BHA.
Chester would have known that York and Haydock were already racing on this date when it bid for what looks like a surrendered fixture from Doncaster. They obviously made a commercial decision that they could make sufficient profit for it to be worthwhile.
And I’m sure it will have been a decision vindicated by numbers – the website already had the availability of tickets downgraded to "last few left", or words to that effect, when I was considering my Saturday racing options two days before. In the end I played it safer and plumped for Lower Machen, itself not exactly sparsely attended.
gc
JEREMY Are you going to Kingston Blount on Sunday. Neal Blackburn is picking me up at High Wycombe so that we get there in time for the ponies which are at 1.30. they also have a very interesting hound race at this meeting. Entries nowt great, but with Larkhill off due to hard ground and the likelyhood of decent ground at KB should see a few.
On this issue I noted the BHA were offering a job for 30k a year a couple of weeks ago for being a glorified race time planner. Race Times And Planning Executive was it’s glamourous title. It was apparently vital for the industry.
Not at vital as being able to plan Racing regionally and with some common sense.Does anyone know the actual authority the BHA has over the ‘planning of meetings’? There appears to be an assumption (yet again) on the part of some that the BHA is solely responsible.
As I understand the BHA are responsible for the total number of fixtures on any given day and are also responsible for the type of races to be run within a set period but other than that the decision to race on any one day is down to the racecourse management.
Not at vital as being able to plan Racing regionally and with some common sense.
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