- This topic has 24 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
10 years ago I was working in a betting shop, it was good place to work if you liked to watch horseracing. Mind on Mondays, Diagnosis Murder was considerably more interesting than the racing.
Now a betting shop offers little to lovers of horseracing either side of the counter. Diagnosis Murder would be better than the racing most days.
Personally, this weekend sums up why I don’t like it as much as I did.
When I was first getting interested, this weekend was Arc weekend, the Cambridgeshire & the Free Handicap at Chepstow. Next weekend was York, and the Ascot Cornwallis/Bovis stakes.
Last weekend was the Ascot Festival of Racing…….Sorry for the rant, but I always looked forward to this weekend.
To be honest I can’t remember if it was 10 or 20 years ago I’m comparing today with…
But there is far too much poor quality racing these days.
Haven’t looked at ratings so don’t know for sure, but seems to me horses are winning races now who wouldn’t have been capable of doing so in the past. Progress some might argue, not for me.
I used to know the names of the top class handicaps, not so now.
Seems as though course entrance fees are going up and average quality of racing going down.
So much of the good stuff is featured on a Saturday, can’t study for all of it so the big flat handicaps go by without my financial interest nowadays.
I know a lot more about the game now, so am able to form opinions /criticise aspects I had no knowledge of before. Had I been around racing in the 60’s and 70’s may be I wouldn’t have found the 80’s and 90’s so exhilerating. ie It’s probably the same for any era. ie "When I were a lad things were so much betta".
Am able to enjoy the racing that I have no financial investment a lot more.
There’s just as much quality racing around, it’s just in amongst a lot of dross.
Over all, ignore the racing politics etc and concentrate on the "racing" itself and I enjoy "racing" just as much today as I ever have.
Besides, it’s good to have a grumble now and again and again and again….
Value Is EverythingI enjoy racing more now than I did ten years ago, although I’ve only really been interested in racing in the last four-ish, I’ve had a passing interest for many years.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, as a former student of non league football, I quite enjoy the racing other people describe as ‘dross’
Perhaps a better answer would be supplied by ‘Get In!’ last night. They showed a replay of the 2008 Arc in which the 150/1 shot I backed e/w named It’s Gino dead heated for third. I enjoyed seeing the replay just as much as I did at the time!
- Total Posts 17716
Not sure the sample size of this poll is statistically sound,
Yeats
!
I can only ask the question Pinza,
I can only ask the question.Not a bad response for only 36 hours though. Don’t think it makes good reading so far for the BHA & RFC with over 50% of respondents, many of whom have been following the sport for some time not having an increasing enjoyable experience with horse racing
Yeats
Or alternatively, only 37% find the sport less enjoyable than 10 years ago. Maybe the cup is more than half full …
Or perhaps you could give the polling station the chance to take votes over the whole polling time instead of the first two hours of opening.
If you have an opinion then state it, if you want to know others’ opinions then let them give theirs.
Rob
Yeats
Or perhaps you could give the polling station the chance to take votes over the whole polling time instead of the first two hours of opening.
If you have an opinion then state it, if you want to know others’ opinions then let them give theirs.
Rob
I was answering Pinza’s point to me in his post otherwise I wouldn’t have posted at all.
- Total Posts 17716
And I was actually having a little joke relating to the
"poll survey"
debate on the
Whip Rules
thread! I think the question posed here is good,
Yeats
, and producing interesting results.
I first developed an interest in racing off the back of Galileo’s Derby, which of course was 10 years ago now… I still love racing, but it captured my interest more ardently than it does now.
But ten years ago I was still at school and somehow seemed to have lots more spare time to follow the season and devour multiple books on the history of racing. I seemed to know nearly all the horses in training in those days… nowadays I don’t have the time to follow as closely.
From a betting point of view the introduction of the exchanges has been a huge plus and made the game much more fun.
With horses Like Kauto Star and Denman, Long Run and up and coming chasers like Finnians Raindbow Captain Chris, Time For Rupert and hurdlers Hurricane Fly and Co the amount of talent around is as good as ever.
On the flat we have seen a horse in Frankel may rate as highly as the great Sea Bird II. Only a year ago the brilliant Zenyatta had the racing world abuzz with excitement even if she was only doing the Zenyatta shuffle. Australia have come up with one of the fastst sprinters ever seen on a race course in Black Caviar and Germany seem to have produced an amzing filly who just won the Arc by a street length.
Over and above that we are treated to first class meetings from Ireland, Meydan and of course The Breeders.
What’s not to like?
Yes and no really. I first got into racing in 1993/1994 when I was 8 – 9 years old. The past always looks better in hindsight (probably those rose tinted glasses) and I was more passionate about racing back in the late 90s/early 00s.
It kind of went on the wane at a time in my life where I entered adulthood and the word of work and responsibility, where I couldn’t indulge racing in the obsessive way I was used to. Added to that was the increase in dross racing and the recent meddling of the calendar as I’m a bit of a traditionalist.
Yet at a time in my life where everything else seems to be going down the pan (economic downturn, redundancy, family health problems etc), it is racing where I naturally come home to. Watching the sheer blistering speed of Frankel this year has literally blown other issues clean out of the water and has reminded me why I was so attracted to racing in the first place. And I do think I enjoy it as much as I used to, but in a different way. The only barrier to full enjoyment again is the lack of time to devour the form and watch racing on a daily basis which would ensure I’m up to speed on what’s going on.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.