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Surely it is time they dropped the prefix All Weather at tthe salubrious tracks of Southwell,Wolverhampton and Lingfield etc ?
Southwell was abandoned today due to heavy rain and tomorrow’s card is already abandoned, whilst the others have had cards cancelled previously for the same reasons or snow or fog etc
The BHA must understand there is no such thing as All-Weather…unless they ever build an indoor horse-racing track.
Food for thought eh ?
Welcome to my world – it’s been a bugbear of mine for years – I refuse to call it "all weather" – if I have to refer to it I always call it "artificial surface" racing.
The irony is,paulostermeyer,that I never bet on supposedly All-Weather Racing anyway…though better to see some action than none at all,and it keeps the livelihoods of those involved going,even though attendances are usually quite sparse compared to Turf Racing.
Just been on BBC News. The part of the course one could see is quite literally under water. You cannot see the track.
Mike
Why not refer to them as "synthetics" as they would US Racecourses that have replaced Dirt with more artificial surfaces?
LOL aaronizneez have to agree with Bagpuss
A million miles away from Southwell AW but this might brighten up a dull day:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYdcFYO8chg
Made me think this could be Kauto Star if he ever took up the alternative career
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Well, at least we’ve lost it for the remainder of the year. Unfortunately that means the jumps meetings too.
Frankly, I’d be happier if they just scrapped all weather tracks completely. If jumpers can go on turf tracks through the winter, why can’t flat racers? As a lot of them progress to jumping anyway it can’t be that they can’t act on heavier going.
I’m no fan of marketing-speak and like to believe I’m immune from its often mindless, sometimes ugly euphemistic hyperbole but do have much sympathy with the thrusting sharp-suits who chose the term All-Weather: it’s a reasonably accurate and pleasantly euphonious way to describe racing that’s not run on hallowed turf…isn’t it?
Had the terms Artificial or Synthetic had been chosen at the outset one can easily guess what negative reactions there would have been from racing’s assembled throng of reactionaries
Anyway, the problems encountered by Southwell aren’t due to the weather
per se
but due to it being situated on the flood plain of the River Trent. Lingfield and Wolverhampton being less unfortunately placed have lived up to their designation of being All-Weather tracks by being able to continue racing in this current spell of allest-of-all weather
I have no interest in AW; you may not have either; some do; let them enjoy it; you and I can ignore it and wait for the return of National Hunt…strange term that
Hope you’re finding the oft-claimed oft-vacated troll-reserved squeeky-leatherette and not particularly deep armchair comfortable ArkleSupreme…good to have you here buddy
Hello everyone and welcome to ‘Pedantry Today’…
Look, it’s ‘All-Weather’ because it’s basically raceable in all weathers unless it’s under three bleedin’ feet of water or you can’t see half-a-yard through the pea-souper.
Maybe a rename to ‘Southwell Almost All-Weather Except Y’Know When It Floods Or The Fog Gets A Bit Tasty’ would keep you lot happy.
This is not a Trade Descriptions issue.
Mike
All-weather is the biggest misnomer in racing. It should "most weather" at best or possibly even "some weather".
It must be pretty devastating flooding for officials to have abandoned all meetings at Southwell until the end of December at the earliest.
I’m still looking out for the Racing Post to print the usual picture of the presumably flooded Worcester racecourse. I dread to think how bad the flooding might be there.
Usually we get the obligatory photograph of canoeists in action on the Pitchcroft at Worcester. Luckily for that course, there don’t seem to be any meetings scheduled there until next year.
The course has regularly flooded over the years and, for that reason, the fixture list seems to be tailored around avoiding racing in the potentially worst months of the year for flooding and concentrating on summer jumping.
When I was an Annual Member at Lingfield a few years back, they called it "Winter Flat" Racing which I think is a fair title.
As someone else sai, you can’t legislate for fog or high winds. Lingfield have lost meetings when the track has been fine but getting to it has been impossible because the roads are snowbound.
I’m still looking out for the Racing Post to print the usual picture of the presumably flooded Worcester racecourse. I dread to think how bad the flooding might be there.
Usually we get the obligatory photograph of canoeists in action on the Pitchcroft at Worcester. Luckily for that course, there don’t seem to be any meetings scheduled there until next year.
.I have seen a picture of Pitchcroft somewhere, the Daily Mail I think. I also saw photos from Wetherby and most of that course is under water
The problem is a number of racecourses adjoin rivers or tributaries and the sheer volume of rain which has fallen in the past fortnight has got to work downstream from higher ground and from the tributaries into the larger rivers.
The Thames is fed by many rivers and will probably continue to rise for a while and that will be true of many rivers – I note Bangor are now worried about their meeting tomorrow. I’ve never known Kempton to flood from the river (it’s a good half mile or more) but there is a risk.
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