- This topic has 24 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I can`t imagine that Doncaster would be seen as a premier venue to hold a top class 10f contest.
Why not?
Agree with the above post: Doncaster is a superb racecourse.
Tinkering in a sport chock full of history seldom does any good.
Look at the travesty inflicted upon the racing public by the "progressives" who run Newcastle racecourse. I suspect the Geordie planners would be the first to slash the distance of the Leger had the race been unfortunate enough to be first run at Gosforth.
Remember the Beeswing? Once a Monday afternoon Group Three contest targeted by the likes of John Dunlop and Sir Michael Stoute. Now, an unmemorable Saturday handicap targeted by, er, no-one. What genius thought up that idea and which mental institution organised the work placement?
The Gosforth Park Cup is another example of tinkering and dodgy planning. Once an ambition race worth watching wherever you happened to be and one of those handicaps where you remember your winners years later. Yet, who won that this year? Did they run it? Answers on a postcard please, addressed to Completely Bemused.
Then there’s the Listed Virginia (Water?) Stakes for fillies. Because of a couple of poor turnouts, they gave it to Brighton (of all places) in exchange for a hundredweight of jellied eels and some pretty deck chairs. In a year chock full of Listed class fillies, they would have had sixteen runners on the lush Newcastle turf had they left things as they were.
All of racing is cyclical. The current status of the Leger is no different.
Let’s not just focus on matters in the frozen North. Deep in lustrous, billionaire Howards Way country, we have the Predominate travesty at Goodwood.
For no obvious reason that I could see except a couple of dodgy turnouts, Chief munchkin Rod Fabricius said they had "re-profiled" and "rebranded" the late lamented ex-Derby Trial as a trial for Royal Ascot. Now, it’s not even known as the Predominate any more. Who won it this year, btw? Steve Woodman’s Ivory Lace?
Let’s just leave the St Leger alone, shall we? Allow the racegoer with a sense of history some small comfort – and leave some variety in the sport for people that care.
what about some kind of a bonus for a horse to win say Derby/St Leger, King George/St Leger – it seemed to get more horses competing in the winter for the prestigious races.
i think any adjustment to prize money will be irrelevant when the breeding industry demands otherwise.
I just wish sprints would go out of fashion….
Maybe scheduling the leger a little earlier would help….
Might impact on the KGV (which is hardly attracting 3 year olds anyway) but would leave the option of the arc more realistic. This last weekend would have been a good time to run it
Instead of putting more money in the winner gets a trophy for the first time this year in the shape of a white rose. For a Yorkshireman like me obviously its a patriotic symbol but it will mean nothing to those watching outside the county.
It wasn`t my intention to belittle Doncaster when I said I doubted its attraction as a premier venue for a ‘Classic’ 10f race.
It`s just that it`s maintained a fairly important status mainly from a traditional standing of opening and closing the season and just the odd fair quality card.
True, there`s the veneer of the new stand to give it some impetus, but if we were starting from scratch on allocation of classics to tracks I don`t think Doncaster would be in the first few.
That apart – I hope the new stand is a success and as I like the Leger, hope it gets better support
Eventually people will get tired of the jumps and go back to flat
O.M.D.B.
The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I can`t imagine that Doncaster would be seen as a premier venue to hold a top class 10f contest.
Que? A fair, wide, galloping oval with sweeping turns seems a lot more suited to purpose than, say, Epsom’s cresta run.
I’ve no idea if the new facilities come up to scratch, as I’ve not been to New Donny ™ yet, and am unlikely to until December at the earliest, but I’d always rate a course’s racing surface and challenge to the horse as the determinants of its suitability to hold a top class contest rather than the volume of prawn sandwich-masticators it can shoehorn in.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Alaistair Down has done a very good article in the Sunday Mirror today about the attitude of people to the St Leger.
Throw in the fact that he looks to be the pick of a strong O’Brien entry…
Are you being serious Alastair?
The 3YOs entered for the Park Hill over the same CD is proof that a Group2 event for Fillies and Mares is a greater attraction than a mediocre Classic. A number of them would have stood a decent chance of winning the Leger. The same applies to those entered for the Irish equivalent and the Arc – Soldier of Fortune would have held an excellent chance of winning the St Leger.
Whoever claims victory, I have a feeling that we will be debating another mediocre final classic in 2008.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.