- This topic has 42 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 5 months ago by
.
- Posts
If I’m reading your correctly Jermey we’re talking Bumper races for seasoned hurdlers and chasers which would be different.
Yep, that’s exactly what they’ll be! Taken from Chris Cook’s piece in the
Guardian
dated January 13th 2010, this neatly sums up provision of all-bumper and jumpers’ bumpers cards at the start of the year;
"Southwell offered some limited respite by using their Fibresand all-weather track to stage a card of "bumpers" – races on the Flat for horses who are supposed to mature into jumpers in time. A first for British racing, it attracted 62 runners… some of the biggest names in the sport were delighted to stop shovelling snow and go racing.
"They’ve done a great job, because we’re all working away and nothing to do, so it’s a great initiative and needs supporting," said Nicky Henderson, who made the 145-mile journey from his Berkshire base. "We’ve had some days that it’s been quite enjoyable in the snow and other days, like yesterday, it was absolutely horrendous.
"We’ve done nothing but dig and sweep and dig our way out and then you get up this morning and it’s all covered again. We were lucky to get out of Lambourn."
After 30 years with a licence, Henderson has little left to learn about his sport but racing horses on Fibresand was new to him. He had phoned colleagues, including Sir Mark Prescott, for advice as to tactics and appeared pleased with the outcome: three winners from six runners.
"It’s been a very good day and they’ve looked after us very well," he said, when the hat-trick was in the bag. "It’s interesting and we’re learning a lot because it’s strange ground for us. You probably do want them to be quite fit. It’s all right but it makes them work hard and they don’t quicken up much in it."
A similar card of bumpers will take place at Kempton on Saturday if the jumps card scheduled for that day is abandoned after an inspection this afternoon. The novel twist is that even horses with experience over obstacles will be allowed to run and Henderson has entered Punjabi for one of Kempton’s bumpers, though he said the reigning champion hurdler was unlikely to run. Big names from other stables who may be testing the Polytrack surface include Twist Magic, Celestial Halo and Air Force One".
In the event, however, I think the Sunbury course’s turf track passed its inspection, and these novel events therefore went untried on that occasion. Next week, however…
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.
Point is, as Nick The Greek said, looking up from the Gardenia felt. "it’s action isn’t it…"
(Can you imagine if Nick was from Bulwell in Nottingham. "It’s action. Innit.")
There’s no snow outside my house. That’s not to say snow doesn’t exist further downwind, or even further down Racecourse Road, but snow is conspicuous by its absence.
To help you along, here’s a couple of paragraphs received last night by some of my subscribers in the colonies. A second tranche received an entirely different couple of paragraphs about the same races, but then, you know how
that
works, guv’nors.
The twenty to three is a chilled Nebuchadnezzar of all weather class and has to be worth a gander even for the staunchest tweedman.
Seek The Fair Land
is better class than this lot – but if
Docofthebay
wins for the ever-present Mr Dixon, you’ll be able to spot me hanging myself from a Channel Four camera wearing an orange hat every bit as flourescent as Mr Dixon’s pink shirt.
The Genius over at ATR has tipped a likely one from Miss Maylam’s fledgling establishment (and a generally reluctant Nicholls dodgepot, but we’ll forget that for the time being) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Conor Dore notch yet another winner this afternoon in the nightcap.
So do enjoy yourself, chaps. I’m off to see the fragrant Ms Spencer and that charming Mr Cattermole. Best of luck.
Well, not only did no-one from Channel Four turn up for the gig (Was it cancelled? Did they show "Casablanca" instead?) but hardly anyone else turned up either. I’ve seen quieter meetings, but not many. Free admission too.
I do love Southwell and have had some great times down there, but I do wonder whether they should just let nature take its course and let a blank day happen, rather than run these extra meetings, which invariably lead to uncompetitive races, featuring a minimum of serious triers, leading to unattractively priced and overbacked winners. This would put off most people on a Monday, never mind a showpiece Saturday.
Still, better a bad day at the races than a good day at work, innit.
Channel 4 absolutely detest having to cover Southwell don’t they? Not only is it that dross all weather surface but even WORSE, it’s north of Watford.
That said, they managed to keep their contempt pretty subtle today & I quite enjoyed it. It was more like three mates, one of whom brought their posh girlfriend while the other had an eccentric loudmouth Uncle in tow, in the bookies or the pub just having a few jars (ad breaks are a wonderful thing) & putting the (racing) world to rights.
Also, even though I Sky Plussed it four days ago, today on C4 was the first time I got round to seeing J’y Vole’s second place at Fairyhouse.
Having said all that, after Seek The Fair Land in the 2.40, my pocket would rather they hadn’t bothered. I forgot how much fibresand form is important,
- Total Posts 17716
Lighten up, Maxy – punters the length and breadth of the land must have thought Xmas had come early, with no winner above 8/1 and 4 out of 6 favs clocking in.
Doesn’t happen too often, and couldn’t have come at a better time for the once a week punter, so let’s be thankful for small mercies – even if they are someone else’s (my sole bet of the day was chinned on the line by the Pricewise nag btw, but I’m still grateful for the brief rush of blood I’d never have got watching another repeat of Countdown). Appropriately enough, my nemesis also won all 3 Scoop6 winners 30k bonus each, with none of the usual collusion from the big syndicates, so there have been much worse days.
Merry Christmas, you old curmudgeon.
Well done to the all weather heroes these past few weeks. All concerned deserve massive credit for keeping horseracing on the map in difficult circumstances. I’ve really enjoyed watching it, Southwell in particular.
What a shame the all weather people who live and breathe racing just as much as anyone on the Bury Road are going skint. The people who supposedly represent them at the helm of the sport earning hundreds of thousands to do so, have a lot to answer for, imo.
Norma McCauley’s interview before her gallant Perlachy ran at Southwell earlier this week, a case in point.
Channel 4 absolutely detest having to cover Southwell don’t they? Not only is it that dross all weather surface but even WORSE, it’s north of Watford
Indeed, Anthony. Aside from the commentators, I wonder which of the C4 apparatchiks have visited these parts? I keep badgering the Clerk to formally invite Nick Luck – perhaps, name a 2k Claimer after him – but he just smiles, thinks I’m a bit nuts.
Speaking of which, RH,:D Fair comment and a very Merry Christmas to you too.
What a shame the all weather people who live and breathe racing just as much as anyone on the Bury Road are going skint. The people who supposedly represent them at the helm of the sport earning hundreds of thousands to do so, have a lot to answer for, imo.
Agreed, Cav. The economics of it will eventually corrode the whole AW thing though. It happened in the sixties with Greyhound Racing.
Every meeting I attend Cav, is shadowed by the
three and a half million quid
the BHA are going to spend on ONE day next year.
It can’t last. Which is a shame because the regulars at Southwell (and Lingers, Wolver and Kempton) are hard core racing people who love the sport, live the sport.
I have a question. ATR are seldom physically represented nowadays at Southwell. Have they given up on it?
I really enjoyed yesterdays coverage of Southwell, maybe because they showed lots of archive footage of Dessie etc. Think that, at pretty short notice, they put together a most enjoyable programme. As for Southwell, I can only urge people to give the place a go. Apart from the racecourse itself being a very friendly place with great fish and chips, Southwell is well worth a visit in itself. With The Minster and The Workhouse you can quite easily spend an afternoon there, and a new coffee shop has opened in the town centre, called The Old Theatre. The food is to die for, and they’re opening [or have opened] an upstairs restaurant [actually in the theatre itself]. We may try to get to one of the jumps cards after Christmas; failing that I’d be grateful if anyone could tip me the wink if The Tatling shows up there in the future [although he seems to be running at Wolverhampton these days].
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.