Quality or competition?

[betlarge]

I cancelled a potential trip to Ludlow yesterday having seen that the feature novices’ chase was to be dominated by Garde Le Victoire. (Another long odds-on shot and a six-race card including the bumper didn’t help either).

However, RUK were in full flow about what a treat this was for all the racegoers and how lucky they were to see such a decent animal at a midweek meeting. I’m not sure I totally buy in to all that – he went off at 1/6f in a four-runner affair – and it made it easy to see why the much-maligned novices’ handicap chases are becoming ubiquitous.

Would you prefer to see high-quality horses even if they decimate the race as a meaningful competition?

Mike

[thewexfordman]

Too many races mean quality horses can avoid each other too much

[Steeplechasing]

Not horses like GLV, which is a bit like hurrying to a Steps concert when Bowie might have been playing a few days later. But top class horses like Vautour, Cue Card, Faugheen, most definitely a yes from me

[LD73]

After having the enjoyable experience of seeing Coneygree at Sandown against only two rivals (amittedly it was on a Sunday), I would rather watch a high quality horse run in a small field against lesser rivals over a full field of generally average midweek horses pottering around.

I know a lot of people compare the lack of field numbers here to the equivalent large fields in Irish racing and whilst there is no denying they have larger fields, 3/4 of these fields tend to disappear out the back of the TV less than half way through a race and they also don’t race as often as we do – it is probably also a fact that the current horse population over here isn’t really there to support the amount of fixtures we currently have.

[yeats]

Plenty of races, why not have both?

[Author]

Posts