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I would completely restructure the sport so it is operated and run by a single entity, ideally on the Hong Kong model.
That a 4 x 4 rule be adopted for 2 years olds.
Stating that they can only run 4 times in their first year with at least 4 weeks gap between each race.
This would go some way to limit the damage to their newly formed limbs and vertebrae..Jac
Totally agree with Thisthatandtother’s answer and in an ideal World Mr. Wilson’s also.
Have noticed a lot of 3yo races lately where the horse is having it’s first run and hope to see many more.
Too many good horses are ruined by greedy owners wanting a corporate day out i.e. Ascot and demanding their horses runs on ground that is not suitable.
I definitely applaud trainers such as Roger Charlton who agonises over two of his horses in particular Clowance and Cityscape who need cut in the ground, they are constantly being declared and withdrawn waiting for the skys to open. Patience is a necessary virtue in the ownership of the racehorse.Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Offer a free entry to American horses to run in major classic distance races in the back end of the flat season to persuade their best to come over here rather then our best go over their for the Breeder’s Cup.
Difficult to decide between one simple action or a more connived one.
Here’s the simple one: Double The Prize Money.
The desired effects: since there’s no extra Prize Money floating around, to make this work the number of races, like for like, would be halved. Less racing, more PM.Here’s the connived one: Halve the PM for all handicap-type races and take that PM & put it into the other types (class for class).
Not too sure of the effects of this one, except to deter entries in handicaps & promote entries in non-handicap-types …Maybe both ideas are deeply flawed & well-informed readers can vote them down – with reasons?
providing racing is flourishing in the future, I believe we need fractional timing.
Our cousins have had FT and had it for a while, why the UK is denied the technology that it deserves is beyond me. How much would it really cost to clock at the 2 pole, 6 pole ect.,
and have it published every day???????
Even if we just had it for the all weather. we had it for a short period, why have the new owners of turf trax have not continued. We all keep chating on and on about racing for change, well here is a real, plausible, change we can make to racing. Furthermore it’s changes that happen little and often which make a difference, not massive ones when its gone too far. And becoming some what of a dinosaur to the rest of the world.
Help bring racing up to date with the reintroduction of fractional timing.
I’m with Venusian in wishing to see the end of off course bookmakers but in the internet age I think the horse has bolted if you’ll forgive the metaphor. The decisions of 1961 are holding back the sport, contrast with the 3% increase in prize money in France. I know their courses are often deserted but on course bookmakers being allowed might help balance that out.
Unfortunately I won’t ever see thisBlimey, only one?
Lots of interesting ideas.
Of more limited scope, revamp summer jumping and make it a totally separate season, like the AW. I don’t much like summer jumping but like 2yo racing and exchanges we’re stuck with it.
I wish NH Racing was like it was 15 years ago.
I used to like both codes equally – now NH has greatly diminished for me personally due to the increasing obsession with the Cheltenham Festival.
Horses running twice per season. Horses running in prestigious Graded Races, even Grade 1’s, with connections stating they were not really fit and its a stepping stone to Cheltenham.
Its increasingly making a farce of the UK NH season in my opinion.
If I was put in charge at the BHA I would straight away get rid of 2 year old racing and shift the whole calander forward 1 year, so instead of our 3 year old classics they would be 4 year old classics etc.
A horse at 2 is far too young to be subject to Racing especially potentially being subject to the whip, I think they are rushed into Racing far too quickly, would like to see them have more time with their mothers.
I used to have the same opinion, but changed my mind after talking to an equine vet who’d done some studies in to the effects of age and injury.
With a two year old, the growing process helps it get over any minor injuries and some major ones too. Where as an older horse will often get the same injury and take an age (if ever) to get back to full health.
As a percentage, he found bumpers and store horses produced the highest amounts of injury. With horses who had raced at two making sounder older horses; because they’d had the same type of problems when their bodies were able to cope with them; and strengthened because of it.
Value Is EverythingNot sure what I’d change, but something must be done about trainers running their ‘stamina-laden’ juveniles three consecutive times at five furlongs, getting a handicap mark of 12, and then winning 17 races on the bounce at 2m+.
Ok, slight exaggeration but you know exactly what I mean, and the trainers who do it.
"Use it to your advantage", some might say. Or, "They’re not breaking any rules".
Both true, but I just don’t understand how it’s allowed to happen, something doesn’t seem right about it. For me, it’s the biggest form of ‘rule-breaking’ (for want of a better phrase) without actually breaking the rules.
Sorry if I’m not making any sense in trying to convey how I actually feel about it. I just don’t like it.
Patience is a necessary virtue in the ownership of the racehorse.
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