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Quote: from PAULCS on 9:52 pm on July 20, 2006[br]<br>Far too much racing and lots of unnecessary changes i.e. lopping days off meetings like the Craven & the Champions meeting yet adding more dross.
One change I do like though is moving Cheltenham’s opening meeting of the season to a Fri/Sat almost guarenteeing TV coverage.
<br>Good post agree entirely. <br>
Totally agree EC.
The amount of racing these days is a joke…a lot of dross.
It might be good for betting turnover, perhaps, but it does nothing for me and I can’t imagine how wearing it must be for anyone who works within the industry.
One major factor is that there are too many horses being bred and races need to be created for them. We need to start at grass-roots.
The amount of racing isn’t doing anything to increase my enthusiasm for the sport…quite the opposite in fact. I just can’t keep up with it.
<br>Add me to the list of those bored to the stage of loss of interest by the never ending barrage of flat racing. I stopped betting completely for two months after the Betfred Gold Cup and didn’t miss it at all.
A good pointer to the growth of the industry came from the horses in training sale at Newmarket last week. The 2006 catalogue contained 870 horses – in 2001 the figure was 407.
AP
The only welcome news is the addition of a new Ascot NH meeting ‘twixt Cheltenham and Aintree.
That apart the heart sinks.
The love affair with the Flat has long been growing stale; the divorce will soon be decree nisi absolute.
Good post Maxilon 5.
Have three meetings during the winter….one Flat & two over the jumps
Spring and Autumn have two of each with A/W balanced for the time of year…..eg one or two A/W for spring then gradually change over to turf
Summer…..four meetings daily being two during the day and two evening meetings covered by…………..two ATR & two Racing UK
and for those horrible weekends….increase by one meeting for the time of year on Saturdays but keep it to a maximum of three meetings on a Sunday
Ideally on weekdays two meetings a day would be suffice, maybe three on Friday and four or five on a Saturday/Bank Holiday. Sundays should be preserved for big festival meetings that take place of a weekend, and a handful of summer fixtures.
Also I’m not really a fan of winter Flat and summer jumps.
But all that is being idealistic. Nothing is going to change until the industry is at breaking point and when that will be who knows. But it’s starting to drive me, and seemingly most others, to distraction.
At the risk of sounding like a racing snob, it gets tiresome that every time I flick randomly onto ATR or RUK it’s usually a staple diet of sellers, claimers and AW dross.
Quote: from guskennedy on 9:38 pm on July 20, 2006[br]I see the Whit Monday meeting at Sandown has gone. There’s now virtually no decent racing on any Bank Holiday.<br>
<br>Yeah, Sandown was all too happy to offload that meeting, given that its two evening meetings on the Tuesday (Brigadier Gerard night, isn’t it? Someone will correct me if not) and Thursday of the same week have enjoyed higher profile and greater patronage for a while.
gc<br>
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 6:23 pm on July 22, 2006)
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.
Quote: from Meshaheer on 5:36 pm on July 22, 2006[br]
Also I’m not really a fan of winter Flat and summer jumps.
<br>Even when presented with the terrific fare of Market Rasen today?
I have enjoyed this year’s summer jumping programme more than ever. Granted, I am of sick enough mind to see the joy of selling hurdles at Uttoxeter in any case, but the serious investment in the sphere continues apace, such that it is the rule rather than the exception now to have at least a couple of £10,000 prize contests each week (and in the case of the Summer Plate, Summer National, and Newton Abbot Festival Of Racing meetings, a whole wodge more besides).
the week link remains Worcester, though, whose summer jumping calendar remains largely unchaged from its 1995 original template, and whose last two meetings has not offered a first prize in excess of £4,000. Indeed, certain races are getting worse rather than better – one handicap chase last week was newly dropped to 0-85 having been run as at least a 0-100 for the preceding decade. It may offer a couple of £10,000 prizes during the year, but it’s still getting left way behind the likes of Rasen, Abbot and Stratford in offering decent summer purses.
gc<br>
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 6:34 pm on July 22, 2006)
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.
I’ve long lost interest in the high volume of mediocrity and dross and the sheer volume of racing makes following the form time consuming.<br>That said my local course seems to have quite a good crowd for tonight’s meeting "featuring" 3 turf and 3 AW races consisting of a weak maiden, 3 h’caps plus a seller and claimer so there must be a market for it.<br>I believe that national newspapers will drop one or more of the minor cards per day due to pressure on space
Quote: from graysonscolumn on 6:32 pm on July 22, 2006[br]<br>I have enjoyed this year’s summer jumping programme more than ever.<br>
Yes, the summer jumping programme has steadily gained some sort of shape and I’m enjoying it, relatively speaking but I’d still prefer to see a total break for all or most of July, with more meetings during September as compensation, though I realise the lack of evening meetings then would cause problems with the fixture list. The current week’s break in mid-september makes little sense to me as it seems to serve little purpose; not long enough for stables to ‘shut down’ or for jockeys to recharge the batteries but just long enough to annoy punters such as I relishing the fact that ‘winter rides on the tail of the last horse home in the St Leger’ only to be presented with three days from Yarmouth and impenetrable sprints from Ayr.
A good card at M Rasen yesterday but bizarre differences of opinion over the going. I won’t get involved in summer jumping for this reason.
Interesting that the RP devoted all of today’s letters page for readers to respond to the course executive’s appeal as to what has led to the poor attendances there.<br>General consencus is that serious racegoers will not pay £15 to watch dreary AW fare and the course is unattractive to the socialising, picnic type.<br>Some correspondents wanted the AW dug up and returned to turf but this won’t happen of course.<br>Some serious rethinking is due of their marketing and PR types.
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