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When covering only 1 meeting? Haydock last night was a good example, only that meeting to cover but not a single horse shown in the paddock unless you happened to glimpse one over Peter Naughton’s left shoulder. They did manage to show a few going to post but it just isn’t good enough when charging 20 quid a month, who knows they may attract a few more subscribers if they made an effort. They prefer to fill the gaps between races by showing old replays, I don’t want to see replays between races.
It cannot be a camera thing because horses are shown both the paddock and going to post on cctv at the track, is it laziness?
From what I’ve seen of Australian, South African and American racing, broadcasters there don’t fill air time between races with old replays, they even manage to show some of the horses in the saddling boxes there.I didn’t see the coverage of Haydock so what old replays are you refering to?
I do agree with you though as far as replays go I mean they have them all through the night and all through the morning just how many replays do they want to show? People can sky plus the replay show its on so often that no one who wants to see it isn’t going to have a chance to sky plus it.
The annoying thing for me is I love to see the preview shows RUK put on (example before Cheltenham last year with lydia and Steve Mellish in the studio) but they do so few of them. Why can’t they do one for the July meeting and one for the Eclipse and one for the juddmonte meeting etc ? I can’t believe they didn’t do one for the Epsom Derby meeting a week or two in advance, why not?
The feature they did with Eddie Fremantle on how to form your own market was good as well.
£20 per month is a lot to pay and I do agree we really should be getting more for our money than just the live action, Mark Your Card and endless replays.
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£20 per month is a lot to pay and I do agree we really should be getting more for our money than just the live action, Mark Your Card and endless replays.
Agreed. Nor do RUK seem remotely responsive to subscriber feedback: we seem to be banging our communal heads against a brick wall in politely requesting more coverage of those curious creatures called
horses
. RUK seem to avoid them at all costs: perhaps they’re frightened they’ll break the cameras, or something.
What with that, most of the interesting non-terrestrial races going out on freeview, and unlimited replays available free soon after the race on the SL website, this seems one company intent on shooting itself terminally in the foot.
RUK, if you’re listening, we don’t want endless replays, adverts showing people with open gobs, and previews telling us how marvellous you are –
we want to see the horses
!
I like RUK, but as a small-wagering punter who doesn’t always have a laptop in front of me, I find it incredibly annoying that they very rarely show the prices of the horses in the lead-up to a race.
In comparison to ATR – who have the horses silks, current price, tote and exchange odds on show right up to the off – RUK’s offering is very disappointing. They put up a graphinc with the horse’s odds on a few times at best in a six or seven minute lead-up to a race. I find myself (even in this day and age) pressing the text button to get the latest odds.
Some will say that ‘in this day and age’ I should have a laptop in front of me, but as I say I’m a small-wagering punter who 90% of the time places my bets on a morning. All I want is to be able to check the odds (and colours) of my horse at a quick glance, just like you can do on ATR prior to every single race when they don’t have an overly-busy schedule.
Why do RUK never use Peter Naughton as a pundit?
Surely RUK are doing a tremendous disservice to viewers by not using this guy as a pundit.
You only have to look in the Racing Post to see how highly successful he is on his tipping line, why don’t RUK allow him to pass on this great insight and knowledge on the sport to viewers rather than constantly playing the straight man for lesser mortals such as Morrison & O’Ryan.
Seems such a waste, lets see what he has to offer.RUK Totally Ruined The Ebor & Melrose
As a visual spectacle both these races were completely ruined by RUK’s crass decision to go split screen with the start of two mediocre minor jump races just as both races were reaching their climax.
Two cracking races spoilt for what? Still 2 miles to go at Cartmel when they were finished.
I find it hard to believe that the imbecile responsible for the decision is in their position in the first place, they should be on their way to the job centre.
Quite often RUK fall well below the mark as far as showing horses in the paddock and going to post but on this occasion Lydia & Steve Mellish did a fine job of rattling through the runners but unfortunately all their good work was totally undone by this idiotic decision.
Tend to agree, RUK can show every race in full several times in their Racing Replay, unlike ATR who can’t be bothered to show a replay of some meetings at all now.
The real culprit is the race planning department of the BHA. UK races should have a minimum of 10 minutes between them. Five minutes is not really enough, although you can get away with it if races go off bang on time during the flat season.
Unbelievably there are still examples of only five minute breaks being scheduled following 3 mile races which is just not physically possible.
Another demonstration that there is too much racing and that racing is run to suit bookmakers demands.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Not really sure how you can have races 10 minutes apart when there are 4 meetings. Saturday afternoon being prime time for paying customers on-course, then 4 is minimum you would expect providing the weather is relenting.
The BHA can be accused of being at fault for many things but the incompetence of a television company is not one of them.I saw this, 0 out 10 for RUK. I was totally involved in both races but was shocked when the split screen appeared, it completely extinguished my enjoyment of both races as although I could hear the commentary I couldn’t see what was happening properly.
Could you imagine the Hennessey being cannibalized like this when they’re coming into the straight for the start of a mickey mouse 2 grand 2 mile aw flat race at Kempton. Based on yesterday it would.
It makes you wonder what sort of people are making these decisions, can’t be racing fans.
Another demonstration that there is too much racing and that racing is run to suit bookmakers demands.
I agree, having more racing doesn’t mean its better
Can anyone link from Anders Behring Breivik to ‘too much racing’ in six steps. A virtual Kevin Bacon bobblehead doll to the winner.
I agree,
The presenters these days are more ineffective than they have ever been as I believe too much racing has impacted their ability to hold long term form memory causing over simplistic race reviews on a daily basis.
When I pay money to watch live Horse Racing I expect a detail, passionate, knowledgeable understanding of all the runners but I can’t help I’m being fed cliche after cliche along with statements that seem to be in trend without presenters actually reasoning behind what they mean and drawing their own opinions on the racing.
I don’t blame them as they have the natural ability to be the best presenters in the world but the sport isn’t doing themselves a favour with the ludicrousness of heavy racing fixtures diluting our racing experience as armchair fans.
More needs to be done.
I couldn’t agree more. I am primarily a jumping fan and enjoyed the Cartmel coverage, but to split screen a race like the Ebor was crazy. I switched briefly to channel 4 to watch the race but shouldn’t be neccessary.
The ridiculous Bank Holiday programme of 9 meetings with 8 in the afternoon is not good for the tv viewers luckily they are split 4 and 4 between the two channels but RUK have two jumps meetings to fit in. Luckily as well they seem to be spread evenly between the two channels this time but it will mean every race going off on time to stop the split screens.
Why can’t a few of these meets be in the evening why do they all have to be afternoon or couldn’t some start at 12.30 and others at 3.00.
There never seems to be any effort to make these things work in favour of the public.
Lots of the Bank Holiday fixtures are long standing and were/are major money spinners for the courses. For those people willing to go to the course and actually enjoy racing for the spectacle, a day when the majority of the potential paying public are able to attend a fixture still is more attractive than a cold weekday afternoon when the paying audience would struggle to reach 4 figures.
Do you really have to worship the little square box in the corner of the living room?
God forbid a flat racecourse would want to hold a fixture on an afternoon when the general public have a day off work.
They hold about nine jumps meetings on Boxing Day and you never hear a peep from the fence ayatollah’s (majority) on here.
God forbid a flat racecourse would want to hold a fixture on an afternoon when the general public have a day off work.
There used to be 16 meetings on Easter Monday, many of them jumping meetings. I used to think it was great that so many courses raced when, in theory, a lot of people were available to go racing.
Then, of course, the powers-that-be started tinkering with the criteria payments to racecourses so that many of the courses, notably Market Rasen, decided that it was not worth their while racing on Easter Monday because it was not worth it financially, even though they were getting a big crowd and it was the second biggest attendance after Boxing Day.
Absolutely ludicrous.
There were just seven Easter Monday meetings this year.
Market Rasen did make a brief return to Easter Monday for one year after a long gap but it was purely a one-off exchange for another end-of-season fixture.
Why courses would not want to race on a Bank Holiday, even if they were not necessarily getting all the grant payments they would wish, is a mystery to me because you would think that they would easily recoup any lost grant payment in extra paying customers through the gates, not to mention generating good will from their loyal local racegoers.
The crazy thing is that the system of payments to courses often makes it more financially viable to race on a quiet Tuesday when there will be a miniscule crowd than a popular Bank Holiday when thousands more racegoers could be expected. It’s a perverse disincentive that encourages them to race on quiet days that often hardly anyone wants to attend as a racegoer. Betting shop fodder is more important, no doubt.
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