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Prize money levels at an all-time low cry owners. Minimum tariffs required.
Yet, in the last hour or so I’ve seen a walkover and a two runner race.
Doesn’t add up.
Or does it?
- Total Posts 17716
Nope, trainers complain about a few grand difference in the tarrifs yet take £15k+ of owners for training a horse for 7 months, some of these trainers have up to 60+ horses in the yard
You do the math, ironic really.
The walkover was at Plumpton where 2 non runners in the novice chase left a walkover. Indeed only 8 horses competed in the 3 chases.
The going is reported as fast there. Think trainers are wary of running with "firm" in the description at Plumpton where there were fatalities/ several horses breaking down at a meeting a couple of years or so ago.
You could pick up prize money . Alternatively you return without your horse.
We’ve had temperatures in the mid 70s for several days in the SE.
Is it sensible to schedule meetings at jump tracks which don’t hold summer jumping at this time of year? (other than for financial reasons on a Bank Holiday)All this on the day that Tom George has sent Zanir (decent enough but not top notch) to France to pocket 20k or so in a Graded hurdle and he didn’t even have to win to do so!
The walkover was at Plumpton where 2 non runners in the novice chase left a walkover. Indeed only 8 horses competed in the 3 chases.
The going is reported as fast there. Think trainers are wary of running with "firm" in the description at Plumpton where there were fatalities/ several horses breaking down at a meeting a couple of years or so ago.
You could pick up prize money . Alternatively you return without your horse.
We’ve had temperatures in the mid 70s for several days in the SE.
Is it sensible to schedule meetings at jump tracks which don’t hold summer jumping at this time of year? (other than for financial reasons on a Bank Holiday)Was actually 14 March 2007 on variable ground , some with "firm" there were 2 fatalities and 3 break downs :-
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1910095. … or_horses/Tomorrows meeting at Exeter boasts a six race card…
Three 5 runner races
Two 4 runner races
One 3 runner raceIt’s the fast ground that’s the problem rather than the level of prize money. I’ve been to Plumpton’s Easter Meeting in the past and the ground looked pretty rough after a hard season.
Off topic a shade, but reflecting the same problem, fields for the seven races at Fife Hunt P-t-p at Balcormo Mains were 3,5,3,1,2,1,2
and one of the two in the last race fell at the first!Good news for the end of the week is that there are good entries for The Festival at Perth, the ground is fresh and reported as good with watering as necessary.
Rob
Yes, wasn’t ‘firm’ somewhere in the Ffos Las description also.
Just the 2 NR at Ffos Las compared to 10 at Plumpton.
Maybe being a new course the ground is less "rough"?
I note however that there were only 2 chases at FL, which attracted just 4 and 2 runners respectively
Some Flat meetings have had small fields too – Folkestone, Bath last week for example. Usually, the start of the turf season gives the soft-ground performers a chance but not this year.
The jumps problems stem from fast ground and the very late Easter which meant a lot of meetings on fast ground for a limited horse population. Easter 2010 was earlier and totally different – Newton Abbot’s meeting was abandoned and the Irish National was run on heavy ground.
While Easter remains a moveable feast, we are going to have this problem and the large number of meetings this week isn’t going to make for a pretty sight. The alternative would be to have "early" Easters with an preponderance of NH meetings balanced by "late" Easters with more Flat meetings.
Sorry for thread hijack but East Anglian point to pointing hit an all time low at Marks Tey on Monday when in front of a large crowd there were 4 walk overs, a 3 and a 4 runner race.
Bridget Andrews "won" two races without beating a horse.
Luckily they had a jockeys bucking broncho competition and kids running races to relieve the boredom.
All this on ground officially called "good to firm, firm in places and good to soft in a few places".
Five races reoffered this morning – 3 at Doncaster and 2 at Leicester. One of the Leicester races has no declarations whatsoever so there won’t even be a walkover this time.
Declarations have now been confirmed for Friday’s meetings at Leicester and Doncaster. 39 horses contest six races at Doncaster and 40 contest six races at Leicester. The Leicester card should have been reduced to five races after no horses at all were declared for one of its races but the decision has been taken to divide the maiden (for which 12 were declared) into two divisions with six runners each.
Leicester and Doncaster are two of the worsed offenders re poor purses, they dont deserve any runners imho
Why aren’t they boycotting races at Class 6 level?
Oh right, that’s because they want to get rid of all the class 6 & class 5 races & lead hundreds of horses to the knackers yard.
Animal Aid accused racing of only caring about money after the Grand National, it seems they don’t know the half of it.
"I appreciate the difficulties racecourses are facing but we have too much dross racing," said Tregoning.
"There is too much being wasted at the bottom end of the scale and we have to try to improve prize money where it matters."
Marcus Tregoning
Well at least we know where we stand.
Another poor turnout for Doncaster’s card on Saturday – just 45 horses contest a six race card and 14 of those are in just one race.
Conversely 110 horses contest 8 races on the same day at Thirsk with double figures in every race.
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These small fields are takin the absolute piss now.
Someone sort it out.
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