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There is nothing new in Lydias article although I agree with it wholeheartedly.
It is my opinion that racing needs to stand up and be counted sooner rather than later and if you like call the bluff of the bookmakers, as I do think that the bookmaking industries increasing attitude that they don’t really need horseracing anymore is very wrong.
Go into any High st Bookmakers on an afternoon and the reason that 90% of the people are there is for horseracing, Sure they spend a lot of money on the FOBTs but that is just a bye product, and if the horseracing wasn’t there then they wouldn’t be in the shop to use them.
Ladbrokes and William Hill etc aren’t stupid and I think they know how important the horse racing product is to them, but its obviously not in there interest to publicise this.
This was 3 years ago, and lets just say I don’t think it was quite as transparent as it is now.
However the horse couldn’t have gone back to a nicer man than the sensitive, polite and open to new ideas man that is Mark Johnson !
I once tried to claim a horse called Kahyasi Princess. From memory their were 11 other claims including a friendly claim from Mark Johnston its current trainer.
Unbelievably the friendly claim was successful and they got the horse back, it subsequently went on to win the Brown Jack at Ascot.
Not that I’m bitter !!
I think Non-vintage makes a very good point. Being a "hardcore" Horseracing nut personally I have no interest in the event at all.
But the wider issue is that if we carry on like we are the sport I love will become very much a minority sport with no new blood being attracted to it.
I despair of the insular attitude of a lot of people in racing who pour scorn on any new initative. 48 hr decs being a good case in point.
My horse ran last week at Goodwood and you should have seen the letter I got instructing me what to wear. Tie or cravate compulsary!! What century are we living in?
And I can still remember a couple of years ago when my son wasn’t allowed in one of the enclosures at Goodwood as he wasn’t old enough.
We really don’t want any young people to get the horseracing bug do we because it might spoil it for all us old duffers.
As an owner this is step to far for me. Prize money came down 15% this year and is now going down 10% next year.
They are now going to spread this prize money even more thinly with more races. It is getting to the stage where if you have a horse running in average grade races that you have to win a race a month to break even.
Although I obviously don’t own a horse to make a profit, I’m beginning to feel that I am being seriously taken advantage of by the people making the real money out of the sport. Without the horses they wouldn’t have a product.
It is getting to the stage where my beloved horse may be going to the Tatts sales in October.
I agree with David Johnson. The work and time is in assessing races after they are run to identify anything out of the ordinary, not only improvers but when there has been a strong bias of some kind, and then waiting for those particular horses to run again. To back or lay them accordingly.
I will back that up. I wouldn’t be without Raceform Interactive nowadays, although the Speed Figures it produces aren’t the best.
I definatley fancy this, perhaps my short runner horse will be able to last 2 Furlongs. Then again maybe he won’t!!
I’m trying to work out the REAL odds. So in a 100% book what are the real odds of a horse being placed.
I’m not trying to calculate what a bookmaker would pay out.
Its got to be Steve Mellish, Pro punter my a***.
<br>How he could possibly make money followng his own advice I don’t know and the waffle and cliches he comes out with are very annoying!!
Dettori is king for me particularly in small field tactical races. I also very much like Ryan Moore and Eddie Ahern, particularly when Ryans riding at his "home" track of Brighton.
Negatives definately Richard Hughes!!
"Harry’s too busy laying Milan for telephone numbers, my names Alex. "
He’s obviously not as cute at football punting as he is on the horses then!!<br>
