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Cartmel, Chester, Curragh, Market Rasen, Newbury, Newmarket, Ripon.
Do we need seven meetings next Saturday, RUK will have to try to fit in 5 meetings, 2 of which are jumps and they will have 2.15 Newmarket, 2.20 Market Rasen (2m 4f) and 2.25 Chester.
I thought only bank holidays had seven meetings or more.
Yes it is too much, I don’t know why Cartmel has been added to an already crowded day and doesn’t Chester have enough fixtures as it is?
But on the other hand Chester will presumably be packed as usual and I would imagine there will a pretty decent crowd at Cartmel. The Curragh is under a different racing authority.
Saturday was the busiest day of the year so far, but Hamilton was very busy with hardly a step to be had on the stands if you had been to the paddock. A run of Scottish meetings doesn’t seem to make much of a difference either as Perth was heaving yesterday afternoon as well.
It will only be 6 meetings, the Curragh is in Ireland.
Personally, I don’t have too much of a problem with this, weekends and bank holidays are when most people can attend, although more use of Sundays would be good.
Social changes have meant that taking a day or two off work to attend your local race meeting (or county cricket match for that matter) isn’t as acceptable as it once was.
Any problem surely lies with the plethora of weekday meetings. Aside from the festivals like last week’s Newmarket July meeting, they’re in the main poorly attended. Do we really need more than two daytime meetings?
Any problem surely lies with the plethora of weekday meetings. Aside from the festivals like last week’s Newmarket July meeting, they’re in the main poorly attended. Do we really need more than two daytime meetings?
From a purely selfish point of view the small crowds at midweek meetings suit me, not too many people to get in the way. Of course the downside is that racing would not survive if they had to rely on the likes of me, they needs boozers and bettors! A relaxed Monday at Musselburgh does the job for me.
The 4 UK Flat/ 2Jumps and 1 Irish Flat doesn’t make it as bad. The last few Saturdays have seen 6 Flat meetings. Plus I am still a little peeved that the York meet this Saturday just gone is rather overshadowed by Newmarket. One of their biggest Saturday’s of the year doesn’t get the high profile Jockeys, although it is good for the likes of Phillip Makin.
A goodly number of apprentices got their chance at Hamilton on Saturday evening. The most prominent jockey attending was Rudolf Hess, aka Paul Mulrennan, who had driven up from York and won on Ocean Sheridan. Apprentices rode the other 5 winners.
Was wondering how long a thread like this would take to appear. Shocked it didn’t come before last Saturday.
Of course 12 meetings between both jurisdictions on Boxing Day didn’t raise a peep (6 Class Ones’s in 85 minutes), why would it when 11 of them were National Hunt.
Why don’t you miserable jumps fans piss off and come back in October…
Of last weekend: Rather Newmarket was midweek, but that is being selfish. I am sitting at home all week when most punters are “working”. Can see that the best racing should be at the weekend when most punters can enjoy it. Again, I am less keen on Sunday racing than many punters; not for religious reasons – just don’t think it will be a good thing for “family life”. But may be more GOOD quality racing on the Sunday is an idea? It would be better if York moved to the Sabbath so three days of Newmarket could remain together, culminating on the Saturday.
Value Is EverythingIn a sense it doesn’t bother me much because I rarely look at more than 2 or 3 races a day so whether there are another 10 or another 100 is irrelevant…….I’m still only going to look at 2 or 3
In actually fact there are 8 race meetings
CR you miss the point, Boxing Day is a bank holiday at Xmas with litte else on.
We are the middle of summer.
IMO there is far to much racing.Not saying its perfect from a purists point of view and it almost certainly needs tweaking. Hopefully the new tripartite committee established for this very task will bear fruit on the issue in the short to medium term.
However I’m delighted that UK racecourse attendance for the first six months of the year is surpassing record levels, up 10% or 300,000 on the same period last year. Saturday (as in weekend) is generally a work holiday for many every week and mid July an annual holiday for many every year.
You might want to check those Boxing Day meeting numbers (UK and IRE) again. The opening post referred to both jurisdictions.
And look at the variety. The purism and “quaintness” of Cartmel, the Summer Plate for jumps fans, big juvenile sprint at Newbury, competitive flat handicaps all over the place, the Oaks at the Curragh etc.
Something for everyone, long may it continue.
Yes it is too much, I don’t know why Cartmel has been added to an already crowded day and doesn’t Chester have enough fixtures as it is?
It’s Chester rather than Cartmel which most rightfully ought to be regarded as the tipping point, meetings-wise. The Chester fixture hadn’t taken place on this racedate before 2015 – for the preceding three years, the afternoon fare was Cartmel, Rasen, Ascot-or-Newbury, Newmarket and Ripon.
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.
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