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As far as I am concerned if they restage any of the pattern races away from york then their should be a meeting staged at a later date this year with a pattern race of smilar stature. I am sure newmarket would love a two day meting with Yorks races, in return they stage the Champions day and the Middle park day pattern races at York and ensure ebor tickets were accepted at that meeting, I would accept that as a reasonable swop.
That or go too the Knavesmire and a bloody big hole too drain water into, I would suggest Mr Derby gets his arse in gear and goes and hires a couple of diggers!
Some of the catering staff are on the fiddle so as far as i am concerned i dodnt give a fart, more chances for DWP too nab them…. They will be glad of the exstra work!
If the ground is raceable on saturday I except too be their and seeing group one races, unless tracks still flooded thats what i expect too be doing on saturday.
It’s really not an option to suggest that the lost days could be moved to Saturday and/or Sunday. There are so many factors to consider that would make such a move impossible, off the top of my head a few of them could be:-
Staff – the majority of bar staff would be employed by agencies, not the course, and will have other commitments at the weekend. Same with Tote staff.
Food/Catering outlets – these would more than likely be self-employed people who would already have other bookings for the weekend
Starting stalls / stalls handlers. Many courses do not own a set of starting stalls, often they are shared around the courses in the same area. Same with stalls handlers, they are not employed by the course, they are employed by Racetech, and go wherever they are required. With meetings already scheduled to take place at Redcar and Beverley that same day surely there won’t be enough of either to go around.
Police – there would be upwards of 50,000 people at the course if it was rescheduled for Saturday. Resources would be stretched to breaking point if the police had to attend such a massive event at such short notice.
When Cheltenham lost a day in March, as far as I am aware it was never even considered that the lost day would be rescheduled on a new date – it would have been a logistical nightmare on an even greater scale than this. The only time in my memory that a completely new day has been arranged for racing at such short notice has been the 1997 Grand National, and that was a completely different situation – they rescheduled just one race and they let everyone in for free.
If they can’t add the major races that have been lost to what is left of the meeting, they should just draw stumps and try and make every effort to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
A good dollop of common sense. Everyone seems to think its like moving monopoly pieces on a board…
As far as I am concerned if they restage any of the pattern races away from york then their should be a meeting staged at a later date this year with a pattern race of smilar stature. I am sure newmarket would love a two day meting with Yorks races, in return they stage the Champions day and the Middle park day pattern races at York and ensure ebor tickets were accepted at that meeting,
Yorkshire Pud,
Heavy with irony, but the whole point of a four-day Ebor meet this year is because the course has to close immediately afterwards in order to allow sufficient time to complete the drainage work, allowing a brand new Cheltenham-like always good-to-firm (ha ha) Knavesmire to re-open for the May (Dante) meeting next May.
- Total Posts 17716
It’s really not an option to suggest that the lost days could be moved to Saturday and/or Sunday. There are so many factors to consider that would make such a move impossible, off the top of my head a few of them could be:-
Staff – the majority of bar staff would be employed by agencies, not the course, and will have other commitments at the weekend. Same with Tote staff.
Food/Catering outlets – these would more than likely be self-employed people who would already have other bookings for the weekend
Starting stalls / stalls handlers. Many courses do not own a set of starting stalls, often they are shared around the courses in the same area. Same with stalls handlers, they are not employed by the course, they are employed by Racetech, and go wherever they are required. With meetings already scheduled to take place at Redcar and Beverley that same day surely there won’t be enough of either to go around.
Police – there would be upwards of 50,000 people at the course if it was rescheduled for Saturday. Resources would be stretched to breaking point if the police had to attend such a massive event at such short notice.
When Cheltenham lost a day in March, as far as I am aware it was never even considered that the lost day would be rescheduled on a new date – it would have been a logistical nightmare on an even greater scale than this. The only time in my memory that a completely new day has been arranged for racing at such short notice has been the 1997 Grand National, and that was a completely different situation – they rescheduled just one race and they let everyone in for free.
If they can’t add the major races that have been lost to what is left of the meeting, they should just draw stumps and try and make every effort to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
A good dollop of common sense. Everyone seems to think its like moving monopoly pieces on a board…
Yep, that’s the spirit that built an Empire.
Strange that which we find impossible is almost commonplace over such a short stretch of water?As much as I love horse racing, and especially this meeting (as I go every year), I had written all chance of this meeting going ahead as early as last Saturday – the weather forecast for the area was dreadful.
It wasn’t just the turf that was the problem, it was the public walk areas, which from what national and regional news showed, were almost waterlogged.
Of course, they had to give the meeting the best chance of going ahead, and make a decision as late as possible, but it was pretty obvious it would all be abandoned unfortunately.
Mike
It’s really not an option to suggest that the lost days could be moved to Saturday and/or Sunday. There are so many factors to consider that would make such a move impossible, off the top of my head a few of them could be:-
Staff – the majority of bar staff would be employed by agencies, not the course, and will have other commitments at the weekend. Same with Tote staff.
Food/Catering outlets – these would more than likely be self-employed people who would already have other bookings for the weekend
Starting stalls / stalls handlers. Many courses do not own a set of starting stalls, often they are shared around the courses in the same area. Same with stalls handlers, they are not employed by the course, they are employed by Racetech, and go wherever they are required. With meetings already scheduled to take place at Redcar and Beverley that same day surely there won’t be enough of either to go around.
Police – there would be upwards of 50,000 people at the course if it was rescheduled for Saturday. Resources would be stretched to breaking point if the police had to attend such a massive event at such short notice.
When Cheltenham lost a day in March, as far as I am aware it was never even considered that the lost day would be rescheduled on a new date – it would have been a logistical nightmare on an even greater scale than this. The only time in my memory that a completely new day has been arranged for racing at such short notice has been the 1997 Grand National, and that was a completely different situation – they rescheduled just one race and they let everyone in for free.
If they can’t add the major races that have been lost to what is left of the meeting, they should just draw stumps and try and make every effort to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
A good dollop of common sense. Everyone seems to think its like moving monopoly pieces on a board…
Yep, that’s the spirit that built an Empire.
Strange that which we find impossible is almost commonplace over such a short stretch of water?Reet, France is a very different place where all of the racetracks are right next to each other. So was the 18th century
Once it became clear that the whole meeting was a goner, could they not have contemplated staging a 1 or 2 day meeting next week, if not all 4 days?
Yes you’d have lost a few runners (mainly due to proximity of the Leger & the Irish Champion) and attendances would have no doubt been down but at least we’d have had an event of sorts. Because everyone is stunned that we’ve lost this week I think the majority would have embraced the idea.
Obviously it might not stop raining until December but it just seems to me that the powers that be at York are desperate to get their drainage work started.
Agreed, Firefox. I have missed the Ebor today, a great race. I couldn’t tell you the recent winners of the Roses, the Acomb and the Voltigeur, but I can go back to the eighties with Ebor winners. Could they not run this at Newmarket on Saturday? Two hundred grand going begging too.
They’ve rescheduled a version of the Ebor for next Friday at Newbury. I’m off back into my box.
Peter McGouran, Clerk at Tralee has just said on ATR that they are rescheduling their first 3 days to be run on Mon-Wed next week.
…and that for a racecourse that won’t even exist anymore after this meeting. Compared to York, which still will, this is a splendid effort.
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.
- Total Posts 17716
Don’t think he was talking about France.
Quite right, bluechariot. I was of course referring to Ireland which, as Firefox’s post confirms, are far more flexible in such matters.
The annoying thing is we have lost one of the very best meetings of the flat season due to the York executive/HRA having no contingency plans for a situation that has arisen more than once in the recent past. No real surprise, considering we lost hundreds of meetings to frost (Until Betfair showed them a way to avoid it ), which had no forward planning for replacements either.
Even now, they still imagine the new drainage is the answer to their prayers, and though it has improved such as Ascot, Cheltenham & Doncaster, none of them were ever under water in the same way that York so often is. It’s less than evens it will happen again, and even shorter it will be the same kind of balls-up when it does.This thread has got more common sense in it than I’ve heard from the BHA in my life.
I’ve just had a quick look back and it’s amazing that Drone flagged up his concerns on Sunday yet the racecourse didn’t notice a problem until Tues morning
This thread has got more common sense in it than I’ve heard from the BHA in my life.
I’ve just had a quick look back and it’s amazing that Drone flagged up his concerns on Sunday yet the racecourse didn’t notice a problem until Tues morning
Are you suggesting that the BHA should be replaced by TRF?
Tomorrow perhaps !Backing two runners is the relentless pursuit of value. Backing each way is a shortcut to the poor house. Only 7% make a long term profit.
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