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I’m sure that by now, most of us think that a resumption of racing on May 1st is unlikely. Obviously the key issue is the provision of medical services at the racecourse and we’re only going to start racing again if and when this can be resolved. But as a discussion point, what sort of racing could we see after May 1st.
1. The first move could be to concentrate solely on flat racing at the expense of NH. Flat racing, especially on the AW tracks, requires fewer ground staff (NH needs people at every fence), is much less likely to result in those involved ending up in hospital, and could probably be safely run with just one ambulance rather than the current requirement for two.
2. A restricted form of flat racing on a regional basis would reduce the numbers of staff required to travel to the track and cut the time they spend away from their home stable. It would also greatly reduce the risk of spreading the virus across the country. So, for example, Newmarket and Chelmsford could stage meetings that would only accept entries from Newmarket trained horses. Ditto Newbury and Salisbury for horses from Berkshire and Wiltshire, etc. Jockeys would also have to choose a region and ride only in that region.
3. Three or four meetings per week in each region, ten races per meeting. That would require reduced maximum field sizes to fit with the number of stables available at each track, but that would also reduce the need for extra stalls handlers to deal with one or two big fields.
4. Changes to current elimination rules to ensure that as many horses as possible can get a run once per month. Perhaps also a temporary ban on a stable having more than one runner in a race for the same reason.
5. It wouldn’t be popular, but I suspect it would be necessary to have a cut off point – e.g. horses rated lower than 60 remain on the sidelines. There will be limited opportunities and less money available and for the first one to two months, it’s inevitable that the 2-y-olds and 3-y-olds will get priority.
6. Isn’t this a golden opportunity to trial remote stewarding, instead of having more people going to the course every day. And since a course commentator would be pointless, could that be done from the TV studio.
7. It should be possible to cut the time gap between races to 25 or even 20 minutes, as there’s no point in parading horses in the paddock if there’s no crowd. They can go straight from the saddling box to the start.
All the above would provide for everyday racing, but I confess I have no idea how the top level of Pattern racing would fit and how it should be scheduled.
As an owner, would you want to keep your horse in training given what we know so far. Bills of 2k plus per month might be ok for bigger syndicates – but the individual owners it might be a stretch too far.
I have exactly that dilemma, with a novice chaser and a useful flat handicapper in training. My options are pretty limited, as there’s no chance of selling either horse – who would want to buy when there’s nowhere to race, and in any case the sales companies have all shut up shop.
I’m not going to just abandon the horses and leave my trainer to deal with them, nor do I want to put him in the position of having to lay off staff. But I’m faced with monthly bills to be paid from a much shrunken pension fund!
For now, both horses are being kept ticking over so that they could be got ready to race given two weeks notice of a resumption. But as noted above, I don’t really expect NH racing to resume, in which case the chaser (who desperately wants summer ground) will have to go out in a field for the next few months, just as he did when injured last summer.
The flat horse is a 6-y-old, 7F/1M handicapper, currently rated 83. I don’t see much likelihood of that category being a priority for the BHA if a limited program is introduced. I have had him since the end of October and he’s had a winter off to rest after a busy year in 2019 and he’s had several visits from the vet. He’s been aimed at a race at Kempton in mid April ever since December. The best laid plans …..
I’m not going to just abandon the horses and leave my trainer to deal with them, nor do I want to put him in the position of having to lay off staff. But I’m faced with monthly bills to be paid from a much shrunken pension fund!
I believe the Chancellor is going to announce financial help for laid-off employees later today, following the help for businesses earlier this week; so that might help assuage guilt over feeling partly responsible for ‘sackings’
Presumably owners and trainers have their horses insured. Does this include cover for loss of earnings due to acts of god; the usual act in racing being lengthy abandonment due to a ‘big freeze’ or somesuch. As I think you were an owner during the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001 do you know if any owner/trainer/course insurance policies were activated due to abandonments then. If memory serves Carlisle, for example, didn’t race for a year or so
Your ideas for a restricted racing programme are meritorious but I feel they and any alternatives will be ‘for information only’ until…who knows when
Are you going to resume your lookbacks at 1990. An enjoyable romp and all we can really do at the moment is lookback
Is it classed as “an act of god” Drone
I heard it started from fools eating batsbest wishes with your horses AP
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Drone,
I don’t have insurance, apart from third party liability, so that doesn’t arise. I’ve never owned a horse that was valuable enough to justify the hefty premiums.
I hadn’t planned to resume the 1990/2020 series, it all seemed a bit pointless in the circumstances. Boredom may alter my feelings about that!
I heard it started from fools eating bats
Eating bats is no more foolish than eating any other animal; for all I know they might either make a tasty hors d’oeuvres or are consumed as needs must by those with limited access to other sources of protein
I heard it started from fools eating bats
No that was back in the 70s or 80s – Can’t blame Ozzy Osbourne for this one.
100% drone but you wouldn’t class it with such things as floods, thunderstorms, tsunami, earthquakes etc or can you.??
Homer I was telling my son about Ozzy yesterday…
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
While the coronavirus almost certainly originated with a bat of some kind or another, the transfer of the disease to humans will have occurred through an intermediary. A possible scenario is that a bat defecated from the air, the batshit landed on a piece of fruit, and the batshit/fruit combination was later consumed by a pig.
Plus, Ozzy didn’t eat the bat. He only bit off its head.
Of what we will miss, do people think certain meetings can or should be re-arranged? Or do we just move on and have to cancel what has been. The National will be lost, is it possible to salvage it? The AW Championships have really started to gather steam, could that possibly be re-arranged?
If Racing goes ahead in May then I think AP’s excellent suggestions could work.
However, if this virus is still hitting hard and May, June, July go by without Racing… ie If the NHS needs the ambulances Racing relies on – then imo Racing should stop – FULL STOP! So what happens next in this situation? Presumably it’ll be similar right across the world.
No/little Racing throughout the normal season. So…
Could this be an opportunity for a worldwide move to abandon two year old racing for good?
Some have said in the past that two year olds are too young to race – their bodies (in theory) not developed enough… And therefore fairer for Racing to begin with three year olds? Four year olds becoming the classic generation. Pinatubo and co get their clasic opportunity.
Value Is EverythingI’d be surprised personally if Racing was back before August or maybe July hopefully. Can’t see racing in May or June. In my mind they should draw up a revised flat season schedule to begin July 15th and communicate it so everyone knows the plan. Next week is a big week in terms of how this virus is going. If we are tracking Italy, 1500 people will sadly lose their lives by next weekend and any talk of sport happening in May and probably June will be off. Life does have to go on though, people’s livelihoods are at stake and do the flat season should start 3 months late with a revised schedule
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