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Newbury COC Keith Ottesen stated earlier today he had watered Newbury (5mm) going stick reading of 5.8 with the intention of providing good to soft ground for Saturday’s card and good for Sunday’s.
How are they allowed to get away with it?This went completely unchallenged by the Racing TV interviewer and it appears the BHA. What’s happened to the directive to water only to provide good to firm?
You absolutely cannot anyone trust either any going description or any CoC to do the job the way it should be done.
I recommend for Jumps ascertaining the times of the first race over hurdles and the first time over fences and on the Flat the first time on the straight course and the first time on the round course and using these to make your own judgement.
Of course, that means you can be almost halfway through the card before you feel
you have a handle on the ground.Never in 40 years betting have I been so mistrustful of going descriptions – ironically especially “Good” as it could mean anything!
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I’d add, as well as looking at race times, Ian…
Keep an eye on each race yourself and consider whether it is either an overly strong or slowly run race. Both could make a winning time appear softer than it actually is…As well as wind speed and direction. Tail winds may make the ground appear firmer than it actually is and a headwind softer than it actually is.
…And allow for this in assessing the time / ground conditions.
Value Is EverythingI agree with all of that – the clock can’t lie but the wrong misinterpretation of it can mislead.
Take Newbury tomorrow – first race is the John Porter on the round course.
Say it’s run six seconds outside standard – clearly Good to Soft, as they’re all 100+, or have they just walked round and raced for half a mile and it’s actually Good?
By the time you’re worked that out the first race on the straight course – the Fred Darling – is upon you.
Get a time and a handle on what it means and by the Greenham you might have some idea what the straight course ground is, whether Perfect Power is likely to stay or Angel Bleu has the cut he surely needs.
It’s a minefield tbh.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Going (no pun intended) to get to the stage where any horse that wants proper good fast ground will be turning up at every Bath fixture and praying the British weather stays dry beforehand.
Last time I checked, the Greenham meeting was a flat one and not NH, they should only be watering if the ground is closer to firm than good to firm and no rain is forecast to avoid any chance of jarring horses up but watering a flat course in April to ensure that a meeting starts on good to soft ground is absolutely disgraceful!
I was talking to a member of racecourse management at Bath last year and he said the trainers of the dwindling number of fast-ground horses had been thanking them for being virtually the only track in the country left that produces good old-fashioned summer Flat racing quick ground.
Newbury hitting a new low by watering with the stated aim to achieve Good to Soft ground for a Flat meeting.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Absolutely ridiculous that we are tampering so much with the going. All owners who have bought horses who prefer good going must be livid at watering going on. Surely only rock hard ground justifys watering clearly something we’ve not had for many a year. It makes a mockery of breeding top class racehorses when it’s constantly good to soft.We would never have seen the brilliant horses who excelled on good or good to firm in the past.
“Newbury hitting a new low by watering with the stated aim to achieve Good to Soft ground for a Flat meeting.”
Any Clerk of the Course who did that would be on a disciplinary charge, if I was Chief Executive of the BHA!
No wonder so many decent horses are being sold abroad. P*** poor prize money and clowns in charge of the sport. If I had I good fast ground horse I wouldn’t hesitate in selling it.
Even if it dries up a bit today, his intentions to provide easy ground was clear. It should be good to firm.Keith Ottesen this morning
A warm, sunny afternoon is forecast at Newbury but conditions are unlikely to change according to clerk of the course Keith Ottesen. 5mm of watering was added to the track on Thursday.
“The home straight is just in the easy side of good and I think it’ll hold but it’s generally good and there’s plenty in it,” he said. “It’s a beautiful day, I don’t think it’ll dry out by any means. There’s a little bit of an easterly tail wind. It’s just where we want to be.”
“The home straight is just in the easy side of good and I think it’ll hold but it’s generally good and there’s plenty in it,” he said. “It’s a beautiful day, I don’t think it’ll dry out by any means. There’s a little bit of an easterly tail wind. It’s just where we want to be.”
That does not mean good-soft though Yeats.
“easy side of good” can mean between Good and Good-soft, ie still Good but on the easy side of good.
Idea being any drying of the ground (in theory) would not take it to the firm side of Good.To say they are “aiming for Good-soft” does not seem to be true.
Official going now “Good”.
Value Is EverythingIf ground on the fast side of good is now such a threat to the wellbeing of the thoroughbred, what next? Racecourses with gradient or a camber? That must put strain on the horses legs.
There is nothing for it. The Derby should be moved to Wolverhampton immediately.
I am hearing the latest going stick reading for Newbury is 6.0.
Clerks Of Courses are actually outrageously shifting the going description definition of what these readings mean but, by any historical measure, 6.0 is Good to Soft.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Gingertipster, that’s what he said on Racing TV on Thursday, check it out.
In any event the ground should not be on the easy side with no rain, it should be fast.
Weaver has just tipped a horse with the proviso the ground dries out. It’s ridiculous.
How can you back horses with all this uncertainty over the ground from it being watered?
Trainers don’t use these early trials anywhere near as much as when I were a laad, CAS. I am sure the biggest reason for that is the long season we now have both here and abroad; not wanting to start too soon. But maybe trainers have told racecourses their reason for not running is the greater chance of set-backs. Theory being when the classic comes so close after a trial – trainers say they are frightened of any slight set-back preventing them from running or slight soreness hindering training and having a worse chance for the classic… Which ground on the firm side of good is more likely to produce. Therefore maybe Clerks are now aiming for Good ground for trials?
Value Is EverythingIn 45 years of betting on the horses I have never been so mistrustful of Going descriptions and of the motives of Clerks Of Courses.
And “Good” ironically worries me most as it could mean anything nowadays.
It’s time we did away with going descriptions, or standardised them with going stick reading measurements.
The number on the going stick reading is the only thing I have faith in anymore in this area.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
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