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well said MikkyMo, there’s something for everyone out there and i wouldn’t mind seeding the following figures for the past 5 years and compared with 10, 15, 20 years ago :
number of races per year
amount of prizemoney
betting turnove
number of horses in trainingthe number of racecourses and amount of racing shown on telly are known increases
people can blat on about quality but who has the final vote ? some would like to see Grp races only, jumps races only, AW races only, no racing for horses rated under 90, etc, but variety is the spice of life, as they say. you cannot please all of the people all of the time and some stroppy gits can never be pleased
I suppose the optimists around don’t think the money handed over to the levy from the bookies will be any less than it was last year ?
And even if it is down a bit, it isn’t really, you just have to look on the bright side and imagine that it isn’t really and stop being a stick in the mud about everything and moaning and spoiling it.
This is what this debate is all about .. it’s not about deciding which 15 runner maiden hcp to have a bet in, it’s about where is the money going to come from if the bookies are paying less to the levy and why waste a finite resource on racing that no-one else wants but the bookies.
Some people on here seem to think that more is less and less is more, it’s just down to the way you look at it. No wonder the country is in the state it’s in, I hope none of you have jobs which involves any sort of responsibility.
why ?
blind optimism, head-in-the-sand thinking and false spin all have their place in today’s world
and the civil service pension is good enough to help one become a fully funded miserable old git in later life
.. typical, instead of apologising your trying to make a joke out of it. You’d make a great cabinet minister or a judge. ‘what a carry on and not a care in the world .. ‘
why ?
blind optimism, head-in-the-sand thinking and false spin all have their place in today’s world
and the civil service pension is good enough to help one become a fully funded miserable old git in later life
Whats this about civil service pension of which i currently have until the sack me
Ah……the annual "racing in crisis" bit.
It always bubbles-up at this stage of the Flat season, due to the universally garbage nature of the ‘product’ that is served-up at this time of year.
If you really want to end the ‘crisis’, you must first acknowledge that the issue is predominately with Flat racing. There are too many horses in training, too many pointless meetings, and too many tracks dependent on means other than racing to make ends meet.
Given the current housing shortage, and the fact that racecourses own vast tracts of land, it seems we have an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
Personally, I think we should start with Newmarket and Goodwood.
why should i apologise for other people’s mistakes ?
as for the housing shortage i would argue there are sufficient houses but too many people – we should start an immediate cull of the economically unviable and non-earners for a start, i’ll work on the next category of ‘cullees’ while that’s being go on with
should start an immediate cull of the economically unviable and non-earners for a start
Yes
Suggest we look at Grasshoppers accounts first. Possibly qualifies on both counts
For somebody who lives in a country with just ONE racetrack it’s hard to understand why English racefans complain. You live in horseracing paradise, friends!
You only have one track too? We have one but two surfaces – well only one surface at the mini moment…
It could get even worse next year. Our racetrack, Frank Stronach’s Magma Racino closes by the end of the season because they have such a big loss. Now we all hope that the old Austrian racecourse at Freudenau reopens next year. If not there will be no thoroughbred racing at all here.
Hello all. I read this thread, like many others on this forum, with interest. It’s always good to get some feedback, positive and negative. I thought I might respond to one or two points. Maxilon 5 said: “We need solutionsâ€Â
Welcome to the forum Lydia – I think most true racing enthusiasts agree that there is too much racing now and as I have mentioned before on this forum, I do not understand how more racing for less prize money can be good for the long term future of horse racing and I’ve yet to hear a reasonable explanation for this. I get bored of horse racing every summer because of this overkill and if it happened all year round then I would probably give it up………well, maybe not Cheltenham
I agree with you regarding the effect that FOBT’s are having and I know a lot of regulars in my local betting shop are spending lots of money on these machines which used to be spent on the horses and dogs. The regulars are also getting addicted to these machines as I have also mentioned on this forum previously and this is a problem which seems to be not taken seriously by the bookies who only care about getting their money without worrying about the social problems that this is causing.
The main worry for the future of horse racing is the lack of young people betting and taking a genuine interest in the sport. Soccer and other sports are now taking the punter’s money and the bad public image that racing has ( ‘ it’s all fixed ‘ and ‘ it’s a mug’s game ‘ seems to be the general opinion of my non racing friends ) is not helping.
grasshopper, my hero.
how many of these jockey’s on corruption charges are out of n.h. racing ?
on which course to bulldoze first i would go wolverhampton, southwell, and great lieghs (straight after the dozers move out)Welcome on board, Lydia
As a disillusioned racing punter I share your pessimism entirely. With prizemoney and volume at current levels racing, and especially the flat code, has a credibility crisis. With the advent of betting exchanges too, I believe that winning is no longer quite the imperative it once was. I feel the betting exchanges must also look at their horseracing commission structure. Charging those betting big – and presumbably in the know – one per cent while the rest of us mugs five per cent doesn’t make much sense to me. The model must change to the more you win, the more commission you pay.
Personally, I’m content to see the fast dwindling pot left to the shrewdies and the mugs and I have no intention of spending hours studying the form pages only for alll the bits of value I’ve found here and there to be wiped out in by just another non-trier or half-trier.
You might kindly pass on just one reader’s displeasure at the recent downsizing of the Times – not to mention the dropping of weekday racecards!
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