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As has been mentioned previously I don’t really see the need for different ratings for AW and turf. It’s just a different type of going after all and a reasonably consistent one at that. I assume twenty years ago you had to wait until June to have a bet when there is established solid turf form ?
Taking AW form on to the turf and vice versa is the quickest way to the poor. Then as now there’s nothing wrong with a degree of patience although June is a bit excessive the Craven meeting is usually the marker unless you’re a candidate for GA. I would also disagree that AW is just a different type of going although this is important in itself the races are run differently and with the slight exception of Lingfield on flat oval courses on an almost constant bend
Summer jumping obviously has its place as there are always plenty of runners (except novice chases) and its something the Irish have done for years without any problems. Also I don’t see anything wrong with racing on polytrack or fibresand during the summer. Some horses prefer that to turf and I think there have been some very good horses who have run at Lingfield and Kempton in recent years, especially in the listed and group races.
…is the correct answer! Everything has its own little role to play.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I think it is wrong to lump the All-Weather tracks together as if the form is inter-changeable from one to another.
All four courses in this country are very different.
I think it was McCririck (it might have been Duval) who was guilty this week of giving the impression that all-weather form should be bracketed together and kept totally separate from the turf form.
Colin
I always felt the 3-day LIncoln meeting at Doncaster (Thur-Sat) was the perfect, & traditional, opening of the flat turf season. I think the reduction to a Saturday, for me dilutes the opening somewhat. I’d love to see this meeting back in it’s rightful place. The arguement that it’s too early in the season for good fields is just not fair. Certain trainers like B.Hills, B.McMahon, W.Turner & others used to have groups of horses primed & ready for that meeting, & in the few years before Doncaster closed, big Newmarket trainers like J.Gosden & E.Dunlop were sending horses there.
I always felt the 3-day LIncoln meeting at Doncaster (Thur-Sat) was the perfect, & traditional, opening of the flat turf season. I think the reduction to a Saturday, for me dilutes the opening somewhat. I’d love to see this meeting back in it’s rightful place.
This year it was in effect a two day meeting run on successive Saturdays due to the very early Easter. What the plans are for next year I don’t know. A two day curtain raiser run on Saturday and Sunday would appeal.
The traditional three day meeting did contain rather too many mundane races.
Just noticed the Doncaster Mile is being run this coming Saturday, so it seems the feature races from the traditional Lincoln meeting have been split over three Saturdays this year: Lincoln/Spring Mile/Cammidge on 22nd March, Doncaster Shield on the 29th and now the Mile on 12th April.
All rather strange
Have a scan at Kempton and you’ll see they are running the Easter Stakes, also 3 weeks late!
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