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Well done Musselburgh; a go-ahead course obviously not afraid to brandish the sword at strange, wobbly, elderly sacred cows and I hope their initiative is a success
I concur with the Osterbeast’s call for ‘blank Mondays’; if not every Monday then certainly those that follow quiet two-meeting Sundays as this would give many stable staff a welcome extended breather, unlike Good Friday when I suspect yard-work is busy anyway readying their charges for a busy Saturday
Windsor won’t like it, mind
<!– m –>http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-ra … t7DaysNews<!– m –>
I really can’t see a need to add yet another day of racing to the calendar. Stable staff get little enough breaks as it is and the fact that all weather racing is just plain dire won’t change because of one more race day and ambitious plans.
The racing calendar is more than full enough.
There are two distinct issues here.
Firstly not to race on Good Friday, a public holiday, is absolutely ridiculous – it’s a day which would attract good crowds and the basis of not racing on that day – i.e. it’s a religious festival for a minority – is frankly farcical.
Yes there is too much racing and no amount of money will make artificial surface racing interesting.
What is required is a drastic reduction in the fixture list and by all means introduce blank days for racing – but make those the quiet Monday’s when courses are likely to attract only a couple of hundred patrons – not a public holiday where it is likely thousands would attend.
Instead of having a token blank day on Good Friday why not have 20 blank Mondays, November through to March? (the only exception being a Monday between Christmas and New Year)
There are two distinct issues here.
Firstly not to race on Good Friday, a public holiday, is absolutely ridiculous – it’s a day which would attract good crowds and the basis of not racing on that day – i.e. it’s a religious festival for a minority – is frankly farcical.
Yes there is too much racing and no amount of money will make artificial surface racing interesting.
What is required is a drastic reduction in the fixture list and by all means introduce blank days for racing – but make those the quiet Monday’s when courses are likely to attract only a couple of hundred patrons – not a public holiday where it is likely thousands would attend.
Instead of having a token blank day on Good Friday why not have 20 blank Mondays, November through to March? (the only exception being a Monday between Christmas and New Year)
Upwards of ten million people is hardly a minority though is it Paul?
Let’s hope the rest of the UK’s population don’t adopt a similar dismissive attitude to the ‘minority’ that attend horse race meetings if ever push comes to shove for our sport eh?
I have no interest in religion myself – other than when it suits me- however I do respect those people who do have a strong faith. Surely one or two days a year isn’t such a great sacrifice to make in order to show some respect for other people’s beliefs is it?
Upwards of ten million people is hardly a minority though is it Paul?
Let’s hope the rest of the UK’s population don’t adopt a similar dismissive attitude to the ‘minority’ that attend horse race meetings if ever push comes to shove for our sport eh?
I have no interest in religion myself – other than when it suits me- however I do respect those people who do have a strong faith. Surely one or two days a year isn’t such a great sacrifice to make in order to show some respect for other people’s beliefs is it?
I very much doubt circa 17% of the population are practising Christians who would declare the equivalent of a fatwa on racing should it break with its strange tradition of not being held on Good Friday. I believe about 5% of the population are regular churchgoers; and whether 17% or 5% that’s still a significant minority isn’t it?
The only ‘holy’ day in my calendar is Remembrance Sunday which often coincides with the third day of the Cheltenham November Meeting. I choose to observe that day enveloped in quiet reflection but don’t for one second believe I should inflict my ‘belief’ on others and get all hot under the collar about how incongrouous I feel something as trite as a race meeting is on my chosen ‘special’ day: I am in a minority, after all
Rather more matter-of-factly as Easter is a ‘moveable feast’ with Easter Sunday falling any time between 22nd March and 25th April racing on Good Friday would put an end to the need for the fixture list between those dates also having to be moveable: witness the annual two-week, three-week break hoo-haa concerning Cheltenham and Grand National and the squeezing in somewhere of the Lincoln Meeting, though that is admittedly not the problem it once was now it’s restricted to weekends
Quite agree about some ‘blank Mondays’ here and there
Upwards of ten million people is hardly a minority though is it Paul?
Even presuming your ten million is correct, within a population of 60 million it is a minority.
Average weekly attendances for both RC and CofE, i.e actively practicing Christians in the main two faiths, is around the 850k mark each
Let’s hope the rest of the UK’s population don’t adopt a similar dismissive attitude to the ‘minority’ that attend horse race meetings if ever push comes to shove for our sport eh?
If the majority of people in the UK wanted horse racing banned it would be difficult to oppose in a democratic society.
I agree with hunting but have to accept Parliament decreed otherwise – I don’t have to agree with their decision but in a democratic society I have to accept it happened
I have no interest in religion myself – other than when it suits me- however I do respect those people who do have a strong faith. Surely one or two days a year isn’t such a great sacrifice to make in order to show some respect for other people’s beliefs is it?
People can believe in any mythical superstition they wish – however they do not have any rights to impose their beliefs on others who do not share those beliefs.
If we are brutally honest most of those who purport to be Christians do so in order to get the extra holidays at Christmas and Easter – if those particular public holidays were divorced from religious dogma then most would not then profess to being Christian.
Also many who profess to being Christian do so because it a) ticks a box, b) they were indoctrinated into believing in the myth at school c) there is this ridiculous Establishment of the Church in this country and / or d) they can get married in church and blow lots of money on a pointless wedding ceremony.
If we are brutally honest most of those who purport to be Christians do so in order to get the extra holidays at Christmas and Easter – if those particular public holidays were divorced from religious dogma then most would not then profess to being Christian.
I think that’s a bit harsh to be honest. I would accept that religious people of all faiths are committed in their belief. Anyway, in the UK I think you’ll find that those public holidays are already entirely divorced from religious dogma!
If there is a demand for racing on Good Friday then it should go ahead. Christian racegoers can just give it a miss (actually most racegoers should give it a miss as it will naturally be populated entirely by Bank Holiday drunks). I fail to see how running racing on any day shows a lack of respect to anybody’s religion.
The Mondays off is a great idea. I should think we’ll have no problem getting it past the bookmakers.
Mike
have to accept Parliament decreed otherwise – I don’t have to agree with their decision but in a democratic society I have to accept it happened
Off at a tangent but wasn’t that debate and votes in parliament yesterday a warming triumph for democracy, enhanced by Cameron’s dignified acceptance of it
Agree or disagree it was heartening stuff
We are fortunate indeed to live in this country
Citizens of the Assad, Mugabe etc etc regimes look at us and weep
(actually most racegoers should give it a miss as it will naturally be populated entirely by Bank Holiday drunks).
MikeFunnily enough I don’t think drunkenness is a big issue at Bank Holiday meetings – out of control sprogs is a far bigger problem but one that is easily rectified with a well placed knee or elbow
Off at a tangent but wasn’t that debate and votes in parliament yesterday a warming triumph for democracy, enhanced by Cameron’s dignified acceptance of it
It was a great night for Parliamentary democracy (as it was for Bashar al-Assad).
Citizens of the Assad…regime look at us and weep
They will do now.
Mike
Upwards of ten million people is hardly a minority though is it Paul?
Let’s hope the rest of the UK’s population don’t adopt a similar dismissive attitude to the ‘minority’ that attend horse race meetings if ever push comes to shove for our sport eh?
I have no interest in religion myself – other than when it suits me- however I do respect those people who do have a strong faith. Surely one or two days a year isn’t such a great sacrifice to make in order to show some respect for other people’s beliefs is it?
I very much doubt circa 17% of the population are practising Christians who would declare the equivalent of a fatwa on racing should it break with its strange tradition of not being held on Good Friday. I believe about 5% of the population are regular churchgoers; and whether 17% or 5% that’s still a significant minority isn’t it?
The only ‘holy’ day in my calendar is Remembrance Sunday which often coincides with the third day of the Cheltenham November Meeting. I choose to observe that day enveloped in quiet reflection but don’t for one second believe I should inflict my ‘belief’ on others and get all hot under the collar about how incongrouous I feel something as trite as a race meeting is on my chosen ‘special’ day: I am in a minority, after all
Rather more matter-of-factly as Easter is a ‘moveable feast’ with Easter Sunday falling any time between 22nd March and 25th April racing on Good Friday would put an end to the need for the fixture list between those dates also having to be moveable: witness the annual two-week, three-week break hoo-haa concerning Cheltenham and Grand National and the squeezing in somewhere of the Lincoln Meeting, though that is admittedly not the problem it once was now it’s restricted to weekends
Quite agree about some ‘blank Mondays’ here and there
Think you are rather missing a point here. I worked in Denmark not so long ago where I found it very difficult to find a shop open on a Saturday evening or Sunday….rather like Ireland 30 years ago. The Danes, not a particularly holy bunch but very civilized like to have time off to go to the park, hang out with family or friends and pretty much switch off from work and commercial concerns.
Being a more egalitarian and civic minded people then us, they generally feel that everybody else is entitled to the same experience so you don’t get too many complaints even when they find no milk in the fridge on a Sunday morning.
People working within racing probably find not a lot of free time around major holidays as it is. Banishing their free time to those lost Mondays is not such a good deal if you are given to interacting with your family or the outside world.
NO TO GOOD FRIDAY RACING!!
SHL
People working within racing probably find not a lot of free time around major holidays as it is. Banishing their free time to those lost Mondays is not such a good deal if you are given to interacting with your family or the outside world.
I have absolutely no sympathy with that argument whatsoever – if you choose to work in the leisure industry, which is what racing is part of, then you have to work when required, if you don’t like the hours work somewhere else.
How about we shut down television and radio broadcasting on Good Friday so the staff can have time with their families? Television is not life or death – and the same arguments you make about staff in racing could apply to staff in other leisure industries, including broadcasting.
People working within racing probably find not a lot of free time around major holidays as it is. Banishing their free time to those lost Mondays is not such a good deal if you are given to interacting with your family or the outside world.
I doubt very much that Good Friday is much different from any other day in a stable other than there’s no runners to be taken to the races; and how many stables have runners every day of the week all year anyway? Actually having runners on a day is but a small extra to the daily workload for (some of the) stable staff, if a time consuming one. The horses need to be fed, watered, worked and mucked out 365 days a year so Good Friday will be little different to any other day a stable doesn’t have any runners
It could be said, perhaps somewhat flippantly, that the workload for many stable staff is greater than normal on Good Friday due to the open days many yards have then
Other than that PaulO said it all and additionally I’d be pretty confident that if you asked stable staff whether they’d prefer to work the regulation 9-5 Monday-Friday working week for which poor souls the patrician concept of Bank Holidays seems to cater or their existing variable hours and days, then the large majority would plump for the latter
Working with racehorses is a (rather nice) vocation and lifestyle choice; no one is forced to do it
I just like going to the Lambourn Open Day. Not sure it can survive on any other day.
Value Is Everything"Even presuming your ten million is correct, within a population of 60 million it is a minority"
According to sources on the net the percentage of regular church goers is somewhere between 14 and 2o % of the Uk population. That equates to at least 8.5 million people. In a population of 60 million people that isn’t a minority in my book (Unless we’re talking about the literal meaning of the word.)
"People can believe in any mythical superstition they wish – however they do not have any rights to impose their beliefs on others who do not share those beliefs."
Who is suggesting that they do? My point was that racing should reconsider the idea of racing on a prominent religious date. That hardly equates to having anything imposed on racing by anyone else.
Some more from TP:
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-ra … t7DaysNews
The fact that there are only 4 days of the year when there isn’t any racing doesn’t really argue much for increasing the number of races.
Secondly, for those moaning about religious beliefs spoiling their days off (I’m not religious btw), please remember that if it wasn’t for those religious beliefs, those wouldn’t be days off work anyway, so no big crowds of people wanting to go to the races! If Good Friday, Christmas, New Year, etc, are just another day in the calendar we should all be at work when they fall during a weekday.
Aren’t Good Friday and Christmas Day the only bank holidays that coincide with Christian holy days?
I suppose St Stephen’s (Boxing) Day could be added, though virtually every day is some Saint’s day, and Whit Monday could have been introduced in deference to Pentecost
Other than that New Year’s Day was introduced (in England) fairly recently due in the main to half the population phoning in with a hangover sicky; May Day is again fairly recent, introduced (I think) by one of Harold Wilson’s governments to commemorate ‘the workers’ ; and the August bank holiday presumably for no reason other than it would be nice to have a long weekend with the children before the schools go back
Personally I think November 5th should be a bank holiday
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