- This topic has 9 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 18 years ago by
.
- Posts
Sunday’s meeting abandoned hard to believe when I’m bathed in sunshine in Bristol but apparently the River Severn is upto its old tricks as with Worcester in previous years.
Sod and toss, as Zoz might say. My curse has struck again!
Number of radio punditry stints so far this year: 12
Number of these on which some or all jumps racing has been abandoned: 10Have a wild guess which day this weekend I’m in action! Proof positive that God hates National Hunt, I reckon…
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.
You are developing quite a great strike rate there GC
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Rather than Arsington Sodmeister Jeremy.
Hopefully this evening at Towcester made up for the loss of Stratford a bit.
At least there’ll be no one taking an extra water jump at Stratford on Sunday,unless they are planning on riding in their flippers & snorkels.Is it more difficult Lekha to get the crowds in on a Saturday with the Arab racing competing with the thoroughbred action.
There’s less UK racing on a Sunday (and usually of a poorer quality).
Would the crowds be any better on a Sunday?I know you can’t use the Newbury meet as an example as it’s always free entry so guaranteed a decent crowd.
Hopefully this evening at Towcester made up for the loss of Stratford a bit.
Did it ever!
Don’t know if you’ve just seen the replays on ATR this morning, but if the pictures suggested to you that Towcester was packed to the rafters, you’d be dead right – queues back onto the A5 to get in even as the second race commenced, every last blade of concrete in the grandstands accounted for (or "no room at the inn", as Mark Johnson might have said were he there), and crowds about nine or ten deep lining the run-in on the stands’ side.
It was, by a very long margin, the biggest crowd I have ever seen at the venue in person (a figure of 8,000 wouldn’t surprise), accepting that the Bank Holiday crowds are usually bigger still. Despite that, apart from one or two very isolated and unsustained outbursts of chanting from one or two beer boys, there was not the first hint of trouble anywhere.
Sadly the sheer volume of people to wade through meant little chance of finding anyone in the crowd whom we hadn’t already swapped phone numbers with beforehand, so apologies to Hairruffle and Aragorn if you were looking for us at any point, but Rory, Happy Jack, Burroughhill and myself managed to meet up eventually.
As regards the racing, there were many highlights on which I may expand on my blog in due course, but witnessing Clarissa Caroe race the teminally hopeless 50 something-rated Lord Gunnerslake and Colemanstown against each other in one steeplechase did bring to mind memories of other "Clashes of the Anti-Titans" of yore, not least Quixall Crossett versus Monaughty Man at Haydock all those years ago…
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
Is it more difficult Lekha to get the crowds in on a Saturday with the Arab racing competing with the thoroughbred action.
There’s less UK racing on a Sunday (and usually of a poorer quality).
Would the crowds be any better on a Sunday?I know you can’t use the Newbury meet as an example as it’s always free entry so guaranteed a decent crowd.
I’ve just discovered, after my trip to Huntingdon today, that Towcester is less than an hours drive away from me so, once/if my wages increase and once/if the price of fuel drops I think I might toddle on down there for a meeting.
GD, the answer to your question may materialise in the next 2 weekends as both our meetings land on a Sunday. 8th June at Wolverhampton (over 100 entries for this meeting so looks to be a top event) and 15th June at Fontwell. Incidentally, if any TRF members fancy coming to any Arabian meeting PM me and I’ll make sure I meet up with you and say hi…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.