So this is the flat season?

[musicfan1ie]

Hopefully Racing will sort itself out with the fixtures in the next few years.

I’d personally like to see a break in the National Hunt season. Maybe take a month off at the end of the season & then, have some goood race meets, rather the usual rubbish that happens before the start of the "real" season.

Then, from a flat point of view, I would like to see some seriously major racing days scattered across the season and advertised as flagship days. They almost do it but not quite.

For example, Guineas weekend, followed by Derby weekend, Royal Ascot, King George meeting, July meeting etc.

But, my issue is the total quality of racing on these days. On derby day, you will get some serious muck as well as the Derby. Saturday of Royal Ascot has some large handicaps, conditions races etc, which are very hard to bet on.

We should be selling the quality of all racing on these days – lets have meetings that attract all the best 2yos / 3yos / Older horses to the same meetings. Also, builds up familiarity to the irregular racing fan as he may check in on the flagship days.

Why not have some days that are "star" days designed for 1m, 1m2f, 1m4f, maybe a sprint for 3/4 year olds then some 2yo races. Perhaps at least 2 of these races could be Group 1, 2 could be Group 2, then 2 could be Group 3

Therefore, re-structure the year around these core meetings above. Maybe space out the dates between them all. Seems stupid to me that a horse running on derby day in the Derby, for example, is unlikely to run at Royal Ascot, due to difference in timing. Lets have Workforce at Royal Ascot – entice him there.

Or work with the Irish Derby organisers to have a "flagship" weekend on a later date for 1m,1m2f, 1m4f – fillies, colts etc on the sunday with Royal Ascot having sprints & major handicaps on the Saturday & incorporate it into the racing package.

Guineas meeting to Epsom is about right. so why not have one at start of May (Guineas),Start of June (Epsom), start of July (Royal Ascot), start of August (King George), Start of September (Newmarket festival), start of October (Arc weekend), Start of November (Breeders Cup).

You would probably have to re-allocate Juddmonte, Coral Eclipse, Irish Guineas etc into the schedule differently. Maybe they could become part of a mid week type focus every wednesday with Chester festival, Doncaster, york (Dante) etc , while the other ones happened near weekends.

Then, the smaller meetings can work around these with Racing emphasising the quality of product and aiming for focussed TV coverage of their product.

That went on a bit, but wanted to say it for a while & never got around to it

[anthonycutt]

re my local track at Lingfield.

Clearly the flat AW serves its purpose in winter with jumps meetings susceptible to icy weather.

A number of members complained about the amount of flat races on the AW during the summer. The response was that the surfeit of fixtures there was such that the turf course could not be maintained to stand that much racing.

Also ,apparently the bend is dangerous and slippery with dew on it during the evening. Thus during evening flat meetings, sprints are run on the straight turf and longer races on the AW bend

Thanks for the info there Lingfield.

Learn something new every day.

[NogbadTheNog]

Feast or famine.

Why on earth the need for 6 flat meetings tomorrow (Friday)? The whole lot, from the number of meetings per day, through to where, geographically, meetings are held on a given day and right down to the structure of individual racecards, in terms of the distances being raced over, is a complete shambles.

Please release the chimpanzees from the ‘planning’ room, admit the experiment was a mistake and exercise some rational thought.

[CheltenhamSpecialist]

Feast or famine.

Why on earth the need for 6 flat meetings tomorrow (Friday)? The whole lot, from the number of meetings per day, through to where, geographically, meetings are held on a given day and right down to the structure of individual racecards, in terms of the distances being raced over, is a complete shambles.

Please release the chimpanzees from the ‘planning’ room, admit the experiment was a mistake and exercise some rational thought.

Not only that but the racing tomorrow is rubbish

[Author]

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