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At Betfair day in a fortnights time the Bumper is race 4 of a 7 race card due to Channel 4 coverage so some people will probably take a break in the bar and then come back to the paddock i expect.
" I can almost see the Post’s write-up of the former being preceded by; "fifteenth and sixteenth fences on first circuit omitted – low sun"."
Fair point, GC.
Which I suppose puts a big long pointy spear through (an abstraction of) Nathan’s idea of ending each day at Cheltenham with the highlight.And what about the build up of anticipation.
The Wednesday of Goodwood is a classic example. The Sussex stakes is the third race of the day and is often a cracker, a genuinely memorable race affecting the course of the entire season: HTN and The Raven last year, for example.
People travel from miles around to see that race and yet the top milers generally go under starters orders an hour after the start of the sports. Intuitively, it seems wrong as if we’re missing something.
Schedule the Sussex for 5.15 or 5.45 and two things are certain:
a) no-one would have left the course to beat the traffic and b) the sense of anticipation would be through the roof.
And for the hardened punter? Is there anything worse than staring into the evil eye of a financial abyss and your only hope is a fourteen runner Class 6 handicap restricted to lady riders or apprentices. Dispiriting isn’t it. Ending the day with an all aged level weights conditions race gives everyone a chance of going home with a good buzz and a warm glow rather than a desire to forget the whole sport.
…
And for the hardened punter? Is there anything worse than staring into the evil eye of a financial abyss and your only hope is a fourteen runner Class 6 handicap restricted to lady riders or apprentices. …
Max
Let’s face it, if a punter is in that state, the last thing they will worry about is where the feature race is on the card!
Rob
a few courses have got wise to the pre-bumper exodus – Newcastle and Uttoxeter spring to mind – by scheduling them as the penultimate race and finishing with a chase
Most Rasen cards that don’t feature a bumper similarly conclude with a handicap chase.
Rasen on Sunday have three successive chases and then a bumper to finish.Which doesn’t strike as sensible planning, unless all three courses have considered that sunset at approx 4.10 may interfere with post 3.30 chases, in which case the planning is entirely sensible.
Take your point, Rob – though I tend to think more people will stay and bet for the duration of the afternoon if the getting out stakes is relatively straightforward, rather than giving the game up as a bad job when discovering the nightcap is a banded handicap contested by blossom-faced debutantes plucked straight from Pony Club. And featuring Dragon Slayer.
Anyway, I get the picture. Forumites are happy to watch the highlight of the day while still half asleep from a good dinner in Members – and then get an early dart straight after. Ok, ok – I give up the campaign.
Personally I am not too fussed where in the program the feature race is run – the race is run with the same horses at the end of the day.
What needs to be remembered is the timing of most major races is dictated, not by the racecourses, but by terrestrial broadcasters – especially where there is a clash with the "beloved" football.
Current practice seems to have been established long before television became a factor.
I have a 1913 form book that shows the Derby run at 3:00 as the third race on a six race card at Epsom. Those six races included two selling plates, along with a 2-y-o maiden and two modest handicaps.
The better supporting races were staged on the following day, either side of the Coronation Cup.
It was the same for the Grand National, third race of the day, off at 3:00, in the middle of five flat races.
AP
I’ve never understood those people who leave early. Maybe they have been given a curfew by the wife or something. Same applies to race meeetings as to football.
The practical reason for bumpers being the last on the card centre around the removal of hurdles being easier than the erection of hurdles I assume. Then again maybe its like most things in life – its just the way its always been!
You cant really compare the big meetings like Cheltenham to the run of the mill stuff at Segefield today. At Cheltenham every race matters…at Sedgefield…every race matters less.
At Cheltenham every race matters…
However, on Gold Cup day – when you get a higher percentage of "six-packers" to "purists", it is noticeable that the course does appear to empty out a fair bit as the six-packers decamp to the bars or head for town.
Or for the jumps men, the National or the Gold Cup at 5?
I can almost see the
Post
‘s write-up of the former being preceded by; "fifteenth and sixteenth fences on first circuit omitted – low sun".
Possibly not a workable idea for me on that basis, I’m afraid.
gc
For the Gold Cup – the low sun problem is a possibility – athough as per my previous comment a later start in the card builds the creshendo of anticipation so I suggest being race 5 on the card at approx 4pm.
Re the National, I think the BBC have been pushing for a later start time for a while but Aintree were meeting resistance from the press (wailing that a 5pm start will miss print deadlines so not carry the story – b******s – don’t get that problem with footy). By April, the low sun shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Didn’t affect the Monday National of 1997.
Here’s a leftfield one – how about the Derby starting at 7PM? (Think Prime Time)
I think the BBC have been pushing for a later start time for a while but Aintree were meeting resistance from the press (wailing that a 5pm start will miss print deadlines so not carry the story – b******s – don’t get that problem with footy).
That’s not strictly treating like with like, in as much as there aren’t too many football matches played that need to fill seven or eight broad(ish)-sheet pages on their own in the same way the National usually does in the
Post
.
Let’s not assume, either, that the off-stone time for the
Post
is halfway as accommodating as that of some or all the daily newspapers. Mirror Group will run the Mirror as late into the evening as possible in order to absorb, say, as much of the evening’s events in X-Factor or similar as possible. Completion of the
Post
is not sat on for as long, otherwise you’d never not have all the reports and analysis from the Saturday evening included in the Sunday morning edition.
By April, the low sun shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Didn’t affect the Monday National of 1997.
You’d hope not, but one April teatime National in living memory enjoys indicative rather than compelling evidence. The bearing of the course means that the home straight would bear the brunt of any low sun issue, and, as those who remember the John Parrett Chase being reduced to a six-fence contest in October 2007 will attest to, it’s not something to which it is entirely immune.
Here’s a leftfield one – how about the Derby starting at 7PM? (Think Prime Time)
They’d never consider that. Where else in the schedule are all those re-runs of old episdoes of
Hole In The Wall
going to go?
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.
There’s no question about the best horses running today – the horses in the stakes race at Kempton.
Likewise there was never gonna be any question where such a race would be buried – first race on the card, which those travelling from the city wouldn’t have been able to make in time and while everyone’s eating their dinner.
While the trilaterals continue to dictate policy the last race on the card will always be a low-grade handicap.
Here’s a leftfield one – how about the Derby starting at 7PM? (Think Prime Time)
They’d never consider that. Where else in the schedule are all those re-runs of old episdoes of
Hole In The Wall
going to go?
gc
Even less chance now if The Derby is removed from from the revised "cherished events" list, a revised version of which comes out tomorrow.
My understanding is The Derby and Rugby League Cup Final are to lose their status whilst home Ashes games will be added to the list.
Which I suppose puts a big long pointy spear through (an abstraction of) Nathan’s idea of ending each day at Cheltenham with the highlight.
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