- This topic has 53 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 3 weeks ago by
.
- Posts
Look at the entries for the 2 November 8 racecard meeting at the Curragh (on heavy ground):
1m 2yr old Maiden Race (€14,750 to winner) – 20 runners
5F 3yr old+ Handicap Race (€15,340 to winner) – 15 runners
7F 3yr old+ Race (€11,800 to winner) – 6 runners
7F 3yr old+ Handicap Race (€12,390 to winner) – 21 runners
2m 3yr old+ G3 Race (€35,400 to winner) – 10 runners
1m 3yr old+ Premier Handicap Race (€29,500 to winner) – 23 runners
12F 3yr old+ Listed Race (€29,500 to winner) – 16 runners
12F 3yr old+ Maiden Race (€11,800 to winner) – 24 runnersNot suggesting that we go to not racing everyday like they do in Ireland but a big reduction in the frankly obese fixture list clearly is the first logical step to start with to ensure that the field sizes increase to healthier levels.
The cost of putting on Fakenham the other day for the dross on offer surely unsustainable , I’ve been to Fakenham a few times , like the course but that was rubbish . Officials , ambulances , etc etc , massive trim in fixtures needed.
I’ve always felt there should be two clearly defined seasons. No jumps after Sandown in UK, no flat after Doncaster or whatever the last meeting is. Scrap the summer jumps and scrap the sand racing. I’m between Newton Abbot (summer) and Exeter (winter) and the racing at Newton is diabolical most of the time, rarely a double digit field. Whereas Exeter get a couple of deecent meetings starting with the Haldon Gold Cup this week. If it rains in the summer for a week Newton Abbot lose half the meetings anyway.
When I said that racing was at its best in the 1970’s/1980’s I was referring solely to the racing itself. I agree that since then facilities have improved.
To improve things I would:
(1) Have a separate turf and all-weather season. There should be two jockeys and trainers championship. Form for each horse would be shown for both turf and all-weather, but not lumped together. A winner of an all-weather race would still be a maiden for a turf race and vice versa.
(2) The turf season would run from its traditional start and finish, being late March to early November. The all-weather season would start on 1st October and finish on 31 May.
(3) The jumps season would run from 1st September and finish on 30 April.
The fact is that jockeys and trainers need a break; some are burnt out too quickly.
Based on the comments read, everyone agrees there is too much racing. My proposal would go some way to resolve this.
I also agree with the writer who suggested the number of listed races should be reduced. At the moment too many relatively moderate horses have black type attached to their name.
Lastly, the problem of the super rich owners running their not so good horses in moderate races lessens the chance of ordinary owners having a winner. I don’t know the solution for this, but the gap between billionaires and the rest needs looking at.
“Not suggesting that we go to not racing everyday like they do in Ireland but a big reduction in the frankly obese fixture list clearly is the first logical step to start with to ensure that the field sizes increase to healthier levels.”
Agree with that, LD. I also have to raise the question why we need AW Racing at Lingfield, Newcastle, Southwell, Chelmsford, Wolverhampton a lot of times with single digit fields. Dundalk races once a week, if I’m not wrong, and provides 14 runner fields most of the time.
I also see a trend with too many horses that are bred for turf racing, but have only raced on AW and can only run their best races on AW. Now, that’s a move that has to be prevented. In Europe, turf racing should still be the no.1 racing surface.Whilst there is a very valid argument for less is more, unfortunately as far as the bookmakers are concerned, more is more. I was working for Ladbrokes in the 80’s and 90’s when the fixture list started to expand – both horses and BAGS meetings – and any argument that we were reaching saturation point was quickly refuted by the figures that showed the more betting events the higher the turnover and that was the end of that particular argument.
I’ve lost count of the number of initiatives that have been introduce in recent years by any number of “working groups” that have failed in their intentions. The messing about with flat season championships really grinds my gears. How can winners earned in April not count to the Championship?
RP have an article today about the five best NH performances of the 2024/25 NH season four of those are Irish trained.
The more I know the less I understand.
I surprised that is not 5 out of 5 , once season gets going the Mullins machine will steamroller the British trainers , the level of horses and training ability is massive .
Salty – agree with you to a point re Bookmakers greed.
Less people are betting on races in general due to the unattractive betting propositions of continued small field races riddled with either long odds on favourites and/or masive outsiders so while adding more races upon more races to encourage more betting opportunities would seem on the surface to be a plan….of sorts, the fixture list is not infinite and at some point (which personally I think we have surpassed a while back) you need to be realistic to see that simply adding more races is an unsustainable model for the current/future health of the sport.
Personally, the proper flat season (where they race on that green stuff) should revert back to starting and end at Doncaster’s Lincoln and November meetings as that all made sense until the Powers That Be started to ‘fix’ that part of the model that wasn’t broken and as an offshot caused more problems than they actually fixed. I have very little to no love of AW racing (its never grabbed me) and abandoning turf tracks at Kempton and Newcastle etc for it left a bitter taste in my mouth….grumpy ‘relatively’ old man that I am sometimes.
That being said, you can easily have a seperate All Weather season run from January to December (with fewer fixtures taking place during the Summer period) and whilst I have never been a fan of Summer jumping (NH racing is a Winter to Spring sport imho) being that we are now in an era where the propensity for over watering ground is now the norm (when the weather opts out on helping) the sport really has alienated the quicker ground NH types to wthe extent to here Summer jumping is really the only option left for them, as we all know that quicker Spring ground Festival meetings seemed to have been universally outlawed as a welfare issue (even though we have jump meetings at some courses with ground descriptions as good to firm
).Apologies for the rant.
“Salty – agree with you to a point re Bookmakers greed.”
Much as I detest bookmakers, the bloated fixture list and small fields cannot be laid at their feet.
In fact they have spoken out at times, such as against so called “Super Saturday”
The blame lies with leaders of the sport. There have been far too many fixtures for years but the useless BHA continue to do absolutely nothing about it.Also moving traditional midweek races like the Derby, the Gold Cup (probably) or the Ebor Handicap to a Saturday isn’t a guarantee for success.
Edit: The Haldon Gold Cup from Tuesday to Friday….
Watch the clips of the early/kid 80s Wed derbies …. Epsom is heaving , those days and atmospheres are long gone and they won’t coming back …. FA cup ditto
Yeats – Yes the BHA are responsible for putting on more fixture but the Bookies (along with other stakeholders – i.e. racecourses that don’t want to lose races/meetings a cull in the list would absolutely inflict on them) have a lot of say in it and are all complicit as they don’t argue for a reduction of the list. The main reason Bookies spoke up about Super Saturday was in large part due to the now congestive nature of the day with those big meetings on the same day that meant that punters had trouble getting their bets on because there was so little time inbetween the races.
If it was simply a case of the BHA just coming out and saying the fixture list is reducing to (insert a significant number that is lower than the current one)…..live with it, then I am sure that would have happened already but every stakeholder they have to interact with (before coming to a decision) is desperate to hang on to its own little piece of power which aligns to their immediate benefits only but often to the detriment of the health of the sport long term.
In order to make a start in trying to reverse the trend and get back on the right track, pain will have to be taken by the racecourses (i.e. many fixtures being lost) and that pain will not only be short term but probably medium term as well but the longer it is left in its current guise the longer the pain will be when change is made and it should be change that the BHA have some control over themselves rather than potentially being change forced upon the sport that may have much more dire consequences.
There are a good few racecourses around that stage almost twice as many meetings than 40 years ago and they didn’t have the non raceday entertaining facilities that they have now.
If they did drastically cut the fixture list,justimagine how much the turf would improveIn the 1970’s / 1980’s when we had a sensible fixture list each racecourse had one track. Nowadays they have two or three tracks with a multiple set of railings so turf can be preserved. This, of course, increases the cost of running a meeting and proves there is too much racing. Kempton Park having meetings day after day after day could not run so many turf meetings. Which is why I presume they dug up their lovely turf and replaced it with an all-weather track. Bookmakers are squealing about proposed increases in betting tax, but they will have to get used lower growth in profitability. This will not be due to tax increases but rather that punters are losing interest because horse racing has become on big bore
The really sad thing about racing is that as years go by the level of economic madness increases. The bubble will have to burst soon. Those who are breeding from their own stock will survive, but the vast majority who are buying horses will lose money. The expected return for every £1,000 invested is around £40. Even the super rich buying horses know that they can only do so because they have got money to burn. The majority of those paying £350,000 to visit Frenkel will lose a percentage of their cash. There are only a finite number of Group 1’s so his progeny cannot win them all.
The downturn has started as some breeders have said they are losing money. In the medium turn stud fees will have to come down to decrease the gap between cost and return.
).
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.