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Posts
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Just wondering, a world class card turned into a mere ‘decent’ day of racing. Nothing special at all now about Cambridgeshire day, for me. Certainly not a 35 runner cavalry charge lottery, nor a race that should be at Ascot. Nor two G1s that are for all intent and purpose tarted up G2s.
Of course it is only an opinion but I think the Cambridgeshire Meeting has been improved by the shuffling of the races. The Houghton Meeting is another matter entirely.
What horses do you think should/would have been running in other circumstances RD?
Can’t expect all the French females to come over for the Sun Chariot. Winner the last two years Sahpresa is favourite again today. Takes on her Falmouth rival Timepiece for the third time this year. Probably the most progressive three year old miler Alanza also takes her chance. Together represents this year’s Classic form. What’s wrong with that?
Difficult to think who’s missing from the Cheiveley Park aswell? Irish filly La Collina possibly the only one, but she I believe has other targets. Best Terms has the best 6f form to date, Lightning Pearl and Shumoos two not far behind. Fire Lily hasn’t turned up, but connections probably feel they haven’t got much chance of reversing form from York.
Value Is Everything- Total Posts 17716
Curiously, my feeling that the
Fillies Mile
would be the race to suffer by being run over the same course, the previous day, to the
Cheveley Park
has not been borne out by the facts.
It’s the
Cheveley Park
which has suffered. I reckon that was the worst renewal for many years (half the likely field were in the
Fillies Mile
yesterday) and the fatal injury to Sheikh Hamdan’s promising filly made it a race to forget very quickly.
I hope this utter nonsense of scheduling ALL the 2yo Group 1’s except the
Racing Post Trophy
on the same course, with the two fillies races only a day apart, and the two for the colts
on the same day
will now be swiftly knocked on the head.
But I didn’t think the
Cheveley Park
would be the first casualty. It is, and I’m sorry for it. A very bad day for British Racing, especially given the plethora of other stuff fighting for air time on C4 and RUK – not least the time-gobbling jumping at Market Rasen (without offence to the many NH fans here).
Agreed Pinza – I’d guess the shifting of the two year old races from Ascot was no more than a sweetener to facilitate the Champion Stakes switch. It all looks a bit of a mess to me.
Pinza, whilst I’m understandably loathed to defend our restructured Autumn, I can’t identify the reason why in one running of the Cheveley Park you’re convinced it’s suffered.
As I see it, the Lowther is the main lead in race more years than not. Fwiw, 4 of the last 10 winners before yesterday had run in the Lowther.
2011: 6 horses ran in both the Lowther and Cheveley Park.
Horses to run in both by year:
2010: Hooray, Margot Did, Rimth, Maqaasid
2009: Lady Of The Desert, Puff
2008: Infamous Angel, Langs Lash, Danehill Destiny
2007: Festoso, Fleeting Spirit, Unilateral, VisitThere was no French filly who’d performed well in the Prix Morny in the ilk of Special Duty or Natagora, so any impact on that route remains untested.
Flying Childers, Firth Of Clyde and Sirenia Stakes are a week closer. Angels Will Fall, Miss Work Of Art and Shumoos each ran in one of those races.
I still can’t see what difference the Cheveley Park being held a week earlier has made. That said, we’ll learn more in time, including in the next few weeks, starting with how the Rockfel looks.
Worth noting, I’ve only received
3
emails offering me a 20% booking discount for Champions Day at Ascot this week from the various parties. Capped crowd of 30000 and they’re struggling to add 8000 to QEII day last year?
- Total Posts 17716
Worth noting, I’ve only received
3
emails offering me a 20% booking discount for Champions Day at Ascot this week from the various parties. Capped crowd of 30000 and they’re struggling to add 8000 to QEII day last year?
I’ve been deluged with discount "Champions Day" offers from other racecourses, such as Doncaster, Epsom and Sandown. They’re struggling to fill it at the prices, even with Frankel on display.
I wonder whether they’ll share the details of the total marketing cost for managing – as they doubtless eventually will – to fill the stands at Ascot?
As for the
Cheveley Park
, when the winner is patently not the first (
Maybe
), nor the second-best filly (
La Collina
) in
Ireland
(let alone England or France!) I think the result and quality speaks for itself. It’s highly unusual for the race not to throw up the champion 2yo filly. This year it most certainly will not.
The
Royal Lodge
at its own levcl has been similarly impoverished – a consolation prize for second-raters, no more and no less.
The Cheveley Park was not the strongest renewal in recent times but one bad edition doesnt close the lid on the coffin. I think swapping the Middle Park and Cheveley Park makes more sense but who knows what the numpties, oops I mean race planners (Is it a coincidence that all those with the word "planner" in their job title do not have a clue?) will offer us next year.
I prefer to think that the UK 2yo fillies are a pretty average bunch and that Ireland have 3 better fillies this season.
Curiously, my feeling that the
Fillies Mile
would be the race to suffer by being run over the same course, the previous day, to the
Cheveley Park
has not been borne out by the facts.
It’s the
Cheveley Park
which has suffered. I reckon that was the worst renewal for many years (half the likely field were in the
Fillies Mile
yesterday) and the fatal injury to Sheikh Hamdan’s promising filly made it a race to forget very quickly.
I hope this utter nonsense of scheduling ALL the 2yo Group 1’s except the
Racing Post Trophy
on the same course, with the two fillies races only a day apart, and the two for the colts
on the same day
will now be swiftly knocked on the head.
But I didn’t think the
Cheveley Park
would be the first casualty. It is, and I’m sorry for it. A very bad day for British Racing, especially given the plethora of other stuff fighting for air time on C4 and RUK – not least the time-gobbling jumping at Market Rasen (without offence to the many NH fans here).
Agree, bad idea to have so many two year old Group 1’s on the same course Pinza. Market Rasen, like many second course races only (for me) only serve to dilute coverage too.
But it’s far too early to say quality has been diminished. Agree Maybe is the best filly around (so far), but she needs further than 6f. La Collina would’ve enhanced yesterday’s race, but did I hear she is being aimed at Breeders Cup (possibly imagined it)? Anyway, neither would’ve run wherever it had been held. Lightning Pearl is right up with the rest; improved since chasing home those two. Best Terms the form pick happened to run poorly. For sure it wasn’t the greatest of renewals, but nothing to do with the changes imo. A poor year for speedy two year old fillies, not many around.
Can’t see Fillies Mile affected the Chieveley Park much, if at all. All bar two stayers, without any pretentions of 6 furlong speed. Rank outsider Semayyel and Fillies Mile second Samitar the possible exceptions. Latter made great use of her speed by kicking from the front off a slow pace at a mile.More than anything it was a pace bias that slightly spoilt Newmarket for me. But nothing can be done about wind speed and direction.
Value Is Everything- Total Posts 17716
I prefer to think that the UK 2yo fillies are a pretty average bunch and that Ireland have 3 better fillies this season.
I agree. It will be interesting though to see what comes out for the
Rockfel
, which will take on much more importance now, given its increased gap after the two filly Group 1’s. This will make it a much more logical "stepping stone" than it has traditionally been, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw a serious home-based animal come out of it. I expect one of the Godolphin fillies they consider potentially superior to
Lyric of Light
may take a hand, if they duck the
Marcel Boussac
.
I also agree with the point
Ginger
makes, to the effect that the
Fillies Mile
second for one was more of a natural choice for the
Cheveley Park
: it’s instructive that she (and several other top English fillies) gave the race a miss.
The solid second place of the 89 rated
Sunday Times
(who didn’t outrun that mark in my estimation) tells us what we need to know about the
Cheveley Park
form. At all events, the
Fillies Mile
and
Cheveley Park
pretty obviously "cut each other’s throats" this year. It has to change.
given the plethora of other stuff fighting for air time on C4 and RUK – not least the time-gobbling jumping at Market Rasen (without offence to the many NH fans here).
A quick leaf through my assorted Rules fixture lists, which regrettably only go as far back as 1978 Common Era, suggest the following about this Saturday just gone;
1) This was hardly the first time the final / fourth (delete as applicable) Saturday of September has been a five-fixture afternoon. See also 2003-5 and 1978-1999.
2) Apart from 1996, 1997 and 1999, when moving to the third Saturday of a four-Saturday September (five-fixture afternoons in both instances) the one course to have raced on this corresponding raceday for the entire duration of this 30-odd year period is… Market Rasen.
Note also that Channel 4 first took coverage from this fixture at the Lincolnshire venue in 2003, even though it offered nothing better than a Class C handicap at the time – it (along with Plumpton) helped them out of a corner when Ascot, Haydock and Ripon were unavailable to them that day. The big souping up of this card commenced a year later, and has continued at pace since, culminating in Saturday’s latest edition with two ceiling-less Listed handicaps and the first class 2 juvenile of the season.
All that being considered, I couldn’t really give any credence to anyone clamouring for Saturday to have been a less congested raceday to nominate Market Rasen’s head as first on the block. Rasen was there the first, the longest, and (in my opinion) has done the most with it of late.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
- Total Posts 17716
Well I did say
"without offence to NH fans"
!
The fact is, that on yet another of Flat Racing’s flagship days, a disproportionate amount of time was perforce spent covering NH races of over 2 miles in length and over five minutes in duration, which cut down the preliminaries and post-mortems of the major Group 1 and 2 races (let alone the Cambridgeshire) considerably for home viewers.
What sort of planning does this suggest from BHA and (more specifically) RfC?
This messing around with Ascot’s and Newmarket’s autumn meetings seemed unsatisfactory in advance; more so now they’re underway
Cambridgeshire day melded well with ‘Arc Weekend’and presumably the reason it’s now been brought forward a week is the wish to avoid a clash with Ascot’s Cornwallis meeting, which itself has been brought forward to ‘Arc Saturday’ next weekend. I see Newmarket’s Rous Stakes is now to be run at Ascot. Why is that?
To compound the confusion Newmarket will be hosting a decent card next Saturday anyway
It all seemed much tidier when there was just the four-day Cambridgeshire Meeting followed two weeks later by the three-day Houghton Meeting, with Ascot racing on the Saturdays immediately before and in between
Rasen (RUK) went head-to-head with Ascot’s (ATR) QE2 meeting until this year didn’t it?
But Newmarket and Rasen are both RUK, which for those watching the satellite channels can only have increased the clogOn the assumption that we will have two dedicated racing channels for evermore, perhaps it would be wise when framing future Saturday fixture lists to ensure there is an even spread of meetings across the two
Levy Board attendance figures are up. I wouldn’t say they make interesting reading, but rather confirm the inevitable.
Total 3 day attendance
Cambridgeshire meeting 2010 – 19762
Cambridgeshire meeting 2011 – 15340What happens now? 3 Group 1 races over the last 2 days, with 2 being original G1 Newmarket races, seen by less people than under the old format. So, applying the test that was applied to Champions Day, do Rod Street and co move these races to Ascot?
I would say on race planning; the Newbury 10f handicap is probably finished as a Cambridgeshire trial/lead-up race.
Chris McGrath again called it ‘heedless vandalism’ on Saturday in his Independent column. It was in stark contrast to Peter Thomas’ Champions Day article in the Racing Post last week.
- Total Posts 17716
On the assumption that we will have two dedicated racing channels for evermore, perhaps it would be wise when framing future Saturday fixture lists to ensure there is an even spread of meetings across the two
Indeed it would,
Drone
. But it seems that RfC/BHA are unwilling/unable to consider TV viewers on the Racing channels. It also seems from
Jose
‘s post that they don’t give much thought to racecourse attendance figures either.
As for the
Rous Stakes
(named after a great Newmarket luminary) being run at Ascot, it makes as much sense as the
Royal Lodge Stakes
(a great Windsor Park landmark on the carriage route to Ascot racecourse) being run at Newmarket.
As Chris McGrath put it, this is
"mindless desecration"
indeed – and it doesn’t even make commercial sense, as the Newmarket figures show. As we watch the predicted car crash unfolding, I for one take absolutely no pleasure in seeing it happen.
Well I did say
"without offence to NH fans"
!
No offence taken or assumed, good body. I’m more or less imperturbable.
The fact is, that on yet another of Flat Racing’s flagship days, a disproportionate amount of time was perforce spent covering NH races of over 2 miles in length and over five minutes in duration, which cut down the preliminaries and post-mortems of the major Group 1 and 2 races (let alone the Cambridgeshire) considerably for home viewers.
There but for the grace of. Bear in mind that this corresponding raceday was still programmed in the proportion three jumps and two Flat until the late 1980s. Had that been maintained to the present day, one or the other (and maybe both) of the specialist channels’ pre- and post-race analysis time of which you speak would risk having been truncated yet further.
Carlisle kicked off their winter season on this Saturday for many a long year, so consider how much more congested things could have been at the weekend had RUK needed to fit seven five-minute-plus installments from Cumbria around Rasen, Newmarket and whatever else. You could have had it far worse.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
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