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Why don’t they find 400 bins and place them around the track and set fires in them, would melt the ******* frost in an hour or so.
This new coporate generation are too work shy, too many computer and figures men in offices!, I’d happily help moving 100 bins and set them on fire for free during the early hours of tonight if it meant kempton was going to be on
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Why don’t they find 400 bins and place them around the track and set fires in them, would melt the [expletive] frost in an hour or so.
Excellent thinking. Why not go one step further, Mr W., and source 400 Heretics whilst you’re about it? One Heretic per bin, and you’ve have some high-quality fat rendered out to grease the grass, which would certainly help to keep that darned frost at bay.
Plus 400 priests on hand to conduct last rites and pray for higher overnight temperatures. Those Kempton Suits were crazy not to try it.
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All very very very badly handled, but that’s no suprise, it’s racing
I suppose for the big spectator events, not Wolves, it is a promotional issue. Whilst it is still possibly on, you don’t want to allow people to make alternative plans.
There could have been an unexpected rise in the temperature and if they managed it honestly you’d have lost 5,000 off tne gate. Moral to the story is 50-50 really means wing and a prayer
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Well if thats the case then its a PR exercise that will cost them in the long run. Reminds me slightly of Easyjet customer service when they tell you about a delayed plane and their ETA…. There will come a stage where the racegoer will get fed up of such shabby service from race courses and say enough is enough
As for Wolverhampton, they’ve got to ask themselves a question, are you going to replace or at least do some work on what is a very tired old surface or not?
Polytrack isn’t grass (or even sand), you can’t just plant some more & surely it’s only got a certain period of time before it needs some attention.The Polytrack replaced the Fibresand at Dunstall Park almost exactly six years ago.
I can’t remember whether the relaid surface at Lingfield at the start of this year had replaced the first lot of Polytrack they ever used (i.e. that which replaced the original Equiturf in 2001), but if it did, that would have made it nine years older at replacement than Wolverhampton’s is now.
As such, and unless someone can fill me in otherwise, I don’t actually think Wolvo’s current surface sets – and is continuing to set – an unprecedented level of antiquity among artificial surface racing courses in the UK.
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.
- Total Posts 17716
Why don’t they find 400 bins and place them around the track and set fires in them, would melt the [expletive] frost in an hour or so.
Excellent thinking. Why not go one step further, Mr W., and source 400 Heretics whilst you’re about it? One Heretic per bin, and you’ve have some high-quality fat rendered out to grease the grass, which would certainly help to keep that darned frost at bay.
Plus 400 priests on hand to conduct last rites and pray for higher overnight temperatures. Those Kempton Suits were crazy not to try it.
Obviously have the bins ontop of the frost covers, dont tell me you thought of putting it on the grass itself? seriously?
jesus wept fellaThere’s little doubt that we would have had racing at any of the other 3 AW tracks today, and it really is time the Wolverhampton track was taken off the roster – for any days racing where turnover is likely to be more than a trickle
Under normal circumstances Kempton would have been deploying its jumps course today, so the argument is only really whether either Lingfield or Southwell could have laid on a fixture instead.
Ostensibly yes they could. All three are, of course, Arena Leisure tracks, so the issue of Boxing Day meetings often costing a stack to bid for doesn’t really apply – it’s a cost that Arena will have expected to account for as part of its bidding model this and any other year in any event.
I can only imagine, then, that geography plays its part. Abandonments notwithstanding, Southwell would have to compete with Market Rasen for Boxing Day punters, likewise Lingfield with Kempton. Wolvo, conversely, has as many of the West Midlands racegoing public captive as can’t or won’t bomb down the A43 to Towcester.
Incidentally, Wolvo’s retention of this Boxing Day slot far predates its conversion to an artificial surface course, so presumably it’s proven viable enough in terms of people through turnstiles to persevere with (not necessarily something that can be said about every last winter weekday evening fixture).
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.
The term All Weather needs to be scrapped,
Indeed it does – it was only ever a lazy media construct in the first place.
"Artificial surface racing" is a far more candid, accurate description. "All-weather racing", meanwhile, confers upon it some sort of global panacea status, one which I’m not sure it can ever hope to live up to 100% of the time when weather conditions deteriorate from inclement to unprecedented-for-decades levels of evil.
Frost covers also seem to be vilified when their deployment hasn’t saved a meeting, but they, too, have operational limits (be that temperature, or sheer volume of snow and ice upon them); and whether air and surface temperatures keep high enough to permit racing once removed is something over which they have no control.
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.
- Total Posts 17716
Obviously have the bins ontop of the frost covers, dont tell me you thought of putting it on the grass itself? seriously?
jesus wept fellaAh, but that’s the cunning of the heretic/priest addition. The danger of the bins burning through the light poly-covers and damaging the grass is subverted. I like your scheme and merely wished to improve upon it. And I don’t think Jesus would be weeping, given the attendant salvation of 400 souls.
Under normal circumstances, Kempton would have indeed have had its turf track in use. Are these normal circumstances? It’s been abundantly clear for at least the past fortnight that we were due another prolonged cold snap. Although the meeting was abandoned, Lingfield had an AW meeting on standby on Sat 18th to step in when they found their turf course unfit for racing. I’m genuinely surprised, and disappointed given the strides the BHA have made with their flexibility with regards race planning over the last few seasons, that a standy AW fixture wasn’t available at the meeting today with it clear a long long time ago that the meeting on the turf course was in doubt.
Similarly if for some reason this was a no go, it was patently obvious there was a strong chance of the majority of the other jumps meetings today being abandoned. Why no Lingfield or Southwell Flat meeting put on at the 6-day stage when Wetherby et al were under 5 inches of snow and -5 forecast? I can’t be alone today in having plenty of family members who are once a year levy contributors that have been denied their opportunity to donate today.
England is at the same latitude as Alaska, but is kept temperate by the jet stream. Global warming warms the Atlantic/Arctic Ocean thereby weakening the jet stream and freezing the UK for half the year.
Meanwhile Virginia gets snowier for 3 months but we now have no spring-it instantly becomes 35 degrees C and stays there. This doesn’t have as much of an impact thanks to dirt surfaces and the steeplechase season being the exact opposite of the UK season. March-November with a break in the hottest parts of June and July. Even so some of the early meetings were cancelled or delayed after the February 2010 Snowmageddon that dumped 3 feet on us.
As such, and unless someone can fill me in otherwise, I don’t actually think Wolvo’s current surface sets – and is continuing to set – an unprecedented level of antiquity among artificial surface racing courses in the UK.
gc
Interesting. I didn’t know they had laid the track so recently. That begs the question, why Wolverhampton has been suffering with it’s reliability lately? Or maybe it’s just a simple case of them having so many meetings when compared to the other two polytracks.
Would I be right in thinking that Southwell can pretty much race any time they like given that it’s basically just sand?
I’m not actually annoyed at the meetings being called off (athough I am frankly stunned that the 15th is the best Kempton can do) but the whole will they/won’t they thing that we’ve got in place is an embarassment to the sport.
I mean let’s seriously ask ourselves, if Kempton was unraceable today, there was never any chance of it being raceable tomorrow was there? Not unless they took the turf to the Bahamas during the night.
Likewise, if Market Rasen had been the last meeting standing for Boxing Day, I’m pretty sure they would’ve made the same noises that Fontwell made & with probably the same result.
England is at the same latitude as Alaska, but is kept temperate by the jet stream. Global warming warms the Atlantic/Arctic Ocean thereby weakening the jet stream and freezing the UK for half the year.
You should have seen the state of Phillidelphia (apologies for dodgy spelling) Parx today. They called off tomorrow already but that didn’t stop them racing in what was effectively a blizzard.
7-10 INCHES forecast for them. Now that’s snow!
It’s been quite funny reading the nonsense from "grown men" who can’t seem to accept that the weather has been very cold (in winter, of all times) and racing, along with other sports, has been hit badly by the weather.
No one dies if a meeting is abandoned. If the weather means that races like the King George are lost, then so be it.
What does anyone think they are going to achieve by venting your spleen on a forum just because the weather has been incredibly bad this winter?
England is at the same latitude as Alaska, but is kept temperate by the jet stream. Global warming warms the Atlantic/Arctic Ocean thereby weakening the jet stream and freezing the UK for half the year.
You should have seen the state of Phillidelphia (apologies for dodgy spelling) Parx today. They called off tomorrow already but that didn’t stop them racing in what was effectively a blizzard.
7-10 INCHES forecast for them. Now that’s snow!
To be fair, Philly Park cancelled the rest of the card today after the 3rd race.
The blizzards that slammed most of the east coast today just left a dusting in northern Virginia. The 2" of snow from 2 weeks ago still hasn’t melted, though. It’s only gotten above freezing a couple times in December, so everything sticks.
Personally i think i must be one of the few people actually looking forward to hopefully going to Wolverhampton on Wednesday.
Regarding the use of the word All Weather i do think they should be simply referred to by their surface so in this country we race on Turf,Fibersand and Polytrack.
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