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Many of the recent troubles at Wetherby stem from them losing part of the home turn to the Highways Agency for expansion of the A1. The new tighter chase track and the ground issues have all followed on from that.
So perhaps it’s unfair to be critcising them too much, but do we really want to see one of the leading Northern NH tracks staging races like the second on their card today, a 0-90 handicap chase worth £4,000.
Surely that grade of race should only be seen locally at Catterick and Sedgefield.
It’s part of an overall decline in this particular card typified by the opening juvenile hurdle. Ten years ago, first prize was £3129, five years ago it was £3696. Today it was £2398. Two feature handicaps over fences and hurdles used to be rated 0-145 five years ago, now they are 0-135. The Beginners Chase is worth a miserable £4000 – I can’t think of any track in the country that runs that type of race for less. The identical race at Ludlow tomorrow is worth £8600, one at Kelso on Sunday is £7000.
Take away the Charlie Hall card at the end of the month and it’s hard to identify any other Wetherby meeting that really stands out, which didn’t used to be the case. Sad to see …..
AP
I’m showing how much attention I pay to the racing there thes days by having to ask when was the chase course placed inside the hurdles track? I always remember it being the other way around.
As many Wetherby Saturday meetings as not this side of Christmas include a selling hurdle nowadays, including some restricted to juveniles.
I suspect the lowering of the quality and prizemoney threshold at Wetherby over time may have been partly driven over time by declining numbers in the better classes of contest, though I’m admittedly speaking here without figures close to hand.
Hard, perhaps, to argue a case for Wetherby to uphold its prize pots in above-average novice chases in particular, when the patronage hasn’t been all it could be for some time (even before the "big blacks" were replaced by the portables a couple of seasons ago).
Five horses contest today’s poorly-endowed beginners’ chase. What part of that equation is cause, and what is effect?
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.
when was the chase course placed inside the hurdles track? I always remember it being the other way around.
I was under the impression the siting on the inside was to be a temporary measure for last season only, but it appears not.Desperate stuff in the Bobby Renton. Marrel suffers a serious leg injury when falling (unreported on RUK), Divex is put down and the winner pulled up lame (happily short-lived apparently). Just hope the ground hasn’t played a part; it really should have settled down by now.
As for this card, yes it’s gone downhill in recent years as has Wetherby’s year generally. The second day of the Christmas meeting is very run-of-the-mill now, with the Castleford being just a 20K 0-150, though admittedly that race did struggle as a Conditions event.
Add the loss of emasculated Haydock’s October meeting and early-season NH in t’north is not what it was.
Sad indeed
Take away the Charlie Hall card at the end of the month…..
AP
That might be a merely a matter of time based on recent observations of the chase track.
Desperate stuff in the Bobby Renton. Marrel suffers a serious leg injury when falling (unreported on RUK), Divex is put down and the winner pulled up lame (happily short-lived apparently). Just hope the ground hasn’t played a part; it really should have settled down by now.
Ye gods. Haven’t seen the race yet but read the PA’s comments in running earlier. Feared for Tom’s Toybox after reading he stopped quickly early on and pulled up – how is he?
Had one of my biggest bets of the season on Evelith Echo on this contest, but for me that all pales next to the news, good or otherwise, on his fellow competitors.
I’m tempted to think these were terrible accidents rather than going-related, otherwise Howard Johnson (one of the revised course’s fiercest critics) wouldn’t have kept his runners in. However, if the reports get back that the going was suspect and possibly at fault for any of the injuries, the course could be in for another very long, troubled, controversial season.
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.
I was their, one dead and two lame all in the same race, the ground was very quick.
Will someone kindly get a bulldozer and return the track too orginal state. We need a rail line linking the smaller towns too each other, that road is neither use nor ornament too those of who live locally. We can get the bankers too do work, they have made a sodding mess of the country let the filth do an honest days work for a change.
Tom’s Toybox looked okay when being walked back by trainer and jockey, which may or may not be thanks to Miss Horner’s rapid pulling-up and gymnastic dismount
Four known fatalities there today.
Nut Hand,Divex,Miss Gibboa & Marrel with a few others finishing lame.
It seems as though my car problems this morning did me a favour in my missing going to Wetherby.
Sounds like the sort of afternoons racing you immediately want to forget.
It is very sad, not just in terms of the injuries and fatalities, but also to see what was a top National Hunt course seemingly in a spiral of decline.
Coupled with what is happening at Haydock it is not good news for National Hunt racing in the North.
Unlike Haydock where the changes are entirely self-inflicted, I can feel sympathy for Wetherby in that the changes have been forced upon them due to the A1 road widening.
Let us all hope todays events are just down to the Good to Firm going and not a continued underlying problem.
Hello,
I attended a Wetherby members meeting, (inadvertently, I was sat in the area the meeting was held, after a race fixture,) finishing a rather nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
The meeting was about the building of the new stand, (some time ago)which is now built and a magnificent succcess although a bit too patronised for the Charlie Hall.
Anyway, I digress, the way the meeting was conducted and the personalities involved, who, overall, I didn’t know and the persons I did know I would not name here, gave me the strong impression that if they made a decision it would stand no matter what.
Contributors to this thread have mentioned mistakes may have been made, albeit with the best intentions, BUT, the personalities and behaviours I witnessed as an uninvited guest at their conference leads me to believe that the said mistakes will not be acknowledged never mind rectified.Just an observers view, not a condemnation of performances which no doubt will have improved since my drunken observations.
regards,
doyley
Tom’s Toybox was subsequently taken away in the horse ambulance, and RUK reported that he’d suffered a fractured fetlock. Hopefully the vets have been able to save him, but in any event his racing days must be over.
Four, possibly five, fatalities; a grim day indeed for Wetherby.
Hello,
A minimum of 4 fatalities MUST indicate something amiss..
There must be a window of time for the necessary authorities to investigate prior to the next meeting and action taken, with or without the Wetherbys assistance.I assure you fatalities at this level does not bode well for NH if we are not seen to put our own house in order.
regards,
doyley
So some fatalities,injured horses and a fence being bypassed in the beginners chase….Same old Wetherby it seems.
I am amazed how this venue has just declined since the A1 realignment.
The BHA should act now and switch the Charlie Hall meeting to either Haydock,Aintree,Doncaster or Newcastle otherwise it will just get worse.
Micky Hammond said that Wetherby would be a good site for a northern all-weather track.
It’s hard to disagree with him after yesterday’s tragedies. If you were an owner or a trainer, would you take your horse to Wetherby for the next meeting?
The BHA should act now and switch the Charlie Hall meeting to either Haydock,Aintree,Doncaster or Newcastle otherwise it will just get worse.
Rather than remove it right away, Neil, maybe it would make more sense for them to put a clock on Wetherby getting their racing surface sorted out once and for all; after which, yes, by all means take the race away if those matters have not been adequately addressed.
It just strikes me that an automatic removal of Wetherby’s remaining crown jewels wouldn’t incentivise the course executive sufficiently to continue to give that much of a toss about the course’s entire racing programme.
Strong rumours of Wetherby becoming either dual purpose or even a Flat-only course one day have abounded in certain outlets of the Yorkshire press for the thick end of a decade. I’m wary of giving the head honchos there too much of a reason to speed the course further towards that eventuality – not out of any anti-Flat sentiment, but just out of the imbalance in northern jumps racing losing one of its courses would perpetuate.
Incidentally, I’m not surprised by the contents of the shortlist of courses you’ve nominated as an alternative venue for the Charlie Hall, given they are all also left-handed and (barring Newcastle’s uphill climb) comparably flat.
However, if we are talking about punishing courses with a failing attitude towards jumps racing, surely it makes sense to reward those who continue to invest time, money and care into improving their jumps programme, racing surface, etc. In that regard, then, and despite them being a totally different shape to Wetherby, would there be any more deserving northern jumps tracks at the moment than either Carlisle or Musselburgh?
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
Here’s hoping the quick thinking by Captain Lucy saved the day, then. Notwithstanding the winner she had in the opener, I’d not blame her if she’s in bits over Tom’s Toybox’s injury, given how many thrilling rides the gelding’s given her these last 18 months or so.
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.
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