Small Fields – Irish Racing

[Cav]

Pat Keane is one of Racings finest columnists. He has a lovely earthy way of expressing himself, I think he’s from Cork, so that would explain it.

Anyway, Pat tells us that whilst UK punters are getting their knickers in a twist over small fields, discerning Irish punters lap them up.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/colu … 78016.html

I agree. Same applies to UK racing.

That three runner sprint up at Carlisle today is a right little treat.

“Leave the Brits off down their own road, the real Irish punter is far more discerning and knows when he is being sold a pup.”

[Drone]

There are one or two discerning punters here in Blighty who would agree with Mr Keane’s words and who realised some 25+ years ago that small ‘uncompetitive’* fields are a turn-on and large ‘competitive’* fields a turn-off

Whenever a loquacious public relations sharp-suit advises me that ‘this is what our customers want’ I immediately interpret that as ‘this is what our company wants’, be that from the mouth of an automaton wheeled-out by Supermarket plc or by Bookmaker plc…

…which is hardly a revelation

* I’ve never had these terms adequately explained and, like what-to-eat-and-bet, tend to be the weasel-words of the seller, not the consumer

[stilvi]

Strange the different reaction that can be achieved if something is in print.

I have taken an anti-handicap stance on here on many an occasion (almost certainly more so than anyone else) and received a very underwhelming response.

The big problem we have over here is the media continually championing these races – Hislop is by far the worst offender – without a thought of the consequences for the punter.

[Cav]

Yes, I think all this "handicap field size" stuff is largely a red herring from the Racing establishment.

Saves them having to deal with blind stewards, abuse of the self cert system, lack of race day updates, inaccurate going reports, bent jockeys, bookmakers who think punters owe them a living, late non runners, lack of early liquidity, etc.

All of these bother me much more than whether the creatures are contesting a handicap or how many of them are running in it.

Oddly enough according to the Levy Board, the biggest races by betting turnover this year so far didn’t feature many handicaps at all. Same most years I’d expect.

http://www.hblb.org.uk/document.php?id=517

[Drone]

Small field gaff handicaps are my breadcrumbs-and-dripping lest anyone think my anti- large field stance precludes any handicaps

‘Small’ and ‘Large’ are ill-defined terms and mean different things to different punters. Small for me means an ideal of between 4 and 9, though that is flexible

[Author]

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