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£30k would be weeny as an outright prize, let alone a prize pool. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the code or of the time of season.
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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.
Given that the Racing post seems to get the inside storys from BHA in return for their arse licking articles,the column on Monday questioning summmer jumping suggests changes are afoot.
How long should a break be and will the bookies accept less fixtures?I’m sure the BHA will make a fine job of it. They’ll have taken into account the dearth of any quality flat racing in swathes of Britain, mainly the west.
I don’t envisage meetings at Bath, Chepstow or Ffos Las getting races much above the Grade 5 level. Summer jumping is needed to complement the dross.
The current position doesn’t work/ isn’t working.
In an ideal world there are two possible solutions;
1; A return to the ‘old days’; finish at the end of May at Stratford – and have a 6 week break, to return on the Friday of Glorious Goodwood with a West Country meeting.
However, this then ruins the Sandown ‘end of season’ meeting – but this is still a fairly recent addition – but I imagine there would be strong reluctance to lose it.
It’s also caused meetings such as the Swinton Hurdle, Cheltenham’s Hunter Chase evening, and Stratford’s H&H Cup to be in a ‘no man’s land’; once at the end of the season, now they’re at the start of the ‘new’ season……even though Cheltenham market it, as their ‘end of season’ meeting.
2; Have a proper Summer NH season, which is completely separated from the ‘normal’ NH season. Have a 2-3 week break after Sandown – then have 1 midweek meeting, and 1 weekend meeting for X number of weeks until around mid September; where there is a Summer NH Festival meeting, which rotates annually around the summer tracks.
Then a short 2-3 week break until Chepstow, and the start of the ‘proper’ NH season.
The 2nd option would pretty much guarantee Mullins winning the trainers title on prize money as Skelton uses the Summer jumps season to get a head-start.
Skelton has already picked up 139K in the first month of the new season and there has only been one Class 1 race during that period.
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