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<br>Max,
BF pay gross profits tax and Levy on the same terms as the bookies to the best of my knowledge.
And surely it’s also comon knowledge that the total amounts matched on a race are not a realistic indication of turnover, since there are plenty of players in there who back and lay a horse in order to turn a small profit margin – this is of course sophisticated stuff for an intellectual like Wilson to grasp.
If you go to the BF site and look at the forum section that covers press releases, you can find details of their 2004 annual report, although nothing since. That gives figures for duty and Levy paid that year.
That quotes a figure of £3.9M for Levy payments in the year ending April 30, 2004 – I reckon that equates to somewhere between £400 and £500 per race.
It seems reasonable to assume that figure will have risen since – I’m sure someone out there will know the answers.
AP
<br>Molem in fact was the only horse he had an interest in during 2006, at least under the Seymour Racing tag that he’s been part of in recent years. And that was sold a month ago at Newmarket, so the ‘quitting ownership in 2007’ line isn’t going to involve a massive dispersal sale.
As for his claim that it cost £24,00 to keep that horse in training for a year – well anyone that pays that much to maintain a Class 6 handicap winner is either daft or has too much cash.
AP
<br>The Bula Hurdle is a normal five day entry race, so entries will be made next Monday, Dec 4th. That’s unusual for such a valuable race, but of course it wasn’t quite such a big prize when the Program Book was published.
AP
<br>Perhaps the explanation for the Longchamp tactics is simply that Take had a ‘Steve Harmison first ball’ moment and succumbed to the pressure of the occasion and his previous problems riding in Europe.
Back on home territory, Deep Impact and Take, like the Aussies, resume their rightful place in front of adoring fans.
AP
<br>Corm,
I think it’s very easy to believe that when a horse you’ve never heard of beats a subsequent major race winner by a clear margin, that he must have been flattered.
One of the more difficult things to do when reviewing a race is to do so without being influenced by your pre-race perception of the likely outcome.
This oftens shows in the way that the majority will downgrade a race in which the favourite runs badly. In fact it happened on Friday when Boychuk beat Gungadu. The post race reaction on RUK was that Gungadu must have been below form and Boychuk was given little credit for winning the race.
AP
<br>May I suggest that the lesson to be taken from the Hennessy is not to under-rate the merit of wide margin victories at top grade tracks.
As our discussions on Detroit City and Kauto Star in recent weeks have shown, there are always people who look at a 15L win and argue – ‘what did he beat’. It almost seems that a horse gets more credit for a 5L success than for a 15L success.
State Of Play won by 16L at Aintree, but I’ve read several pundits this week in the press and online that dismissed that form as a ‘one-off’, or ‘out of line with his other form’. But that race stood the test of form, speed and competitiveness in my eyes, with Lacdoudal suggesting that State Of Play could have won the Betfred with similar ease.
Interestingly, the Aintree meeting produced two other wide margin winners – I’m using a definition of 4 lengths per mile – and they were Detroit City and Straw Bear!
One way I use to get a feeling for the merit of a race that can be usefully applied to this sort of performance, is to think about how I’d rate the race if the winner had been a non runner.
So if State Of Play hadn’t run at Aintree, how good would Lacdoudal have looked winning by 7L with top weight in a double figure field?
Looking ahead, Opera Mundi will get a hefty rise in the weights for winning by 22L yesterday – how will you assess him if he turns up in the big chase at Cheltenham in two weeks time?
AP
<br>Venusian,
Do try to keep up – Julian Thick was moved from Kempton earlier this year and is now running Sandown.
And anyway, he was just the mouthpiece – the decisions about Kempton were taken at the top level within Racecourse Holdings Trust. He was however instrumental in the retention of NH racing, a reversal of the original head office proposal.
Glenn,
Is it possible that the performance of punters at Kempton is improving with experience?
AP
<br>As usual in discussions about AW racing, the anti brigade just ignore any inconvenient facts, so for the sake of balance, may I point out that three twilight meetings held Wed/Fri/Sat produced 15 winners at 5/1 or less from 18 races, and only one winner at a double figure price.
If that’s unpredictable chaos, can we have more of it please.
And if you really think the results are that hard to predict, then just lay every favourite and surely you’ll make a fortune?
AP
<br>Officially 14mm and the going is soft. But it’s still raining here in Swindon as I write and that measurement was up on the BHB website before 7:30 am.
If Uncle Ben lived locally, one look at my back garden would have him dreaming of a bumper crop.
AP
<br>Sixteen declared, the only unexpected absentee is Distant Thunder. Vodka Bleu is the sole Pipe/Johnson runner.
And I’d just like to explain early on that Omni Cosmo Touch is nothing to do with me ……..
AP
<br>ST,
Keep in mind it’s Wolves v Sunderland, 8pm kick off at Milineux this evening, so a quiet pub may be hard to find!
AP
<br>The Moreton Arms is on the right hand side as you head out of town towards the M54 – it’s a big spacious roadhouse 1930’s pub with decent local beer and, in my experience, friendly staff and it has plenty of parking space.
It’s beside the second last set of traffic lights heading north on the A449, about two miles north of the track.
AP
His handicap mark has been dropped to 138 after his run at Haydock, so he’s certainly down to an attractive mark for the Welsh National based on last season’s novice form.
AP
<br>An announcement by the current Home Secretary that he planned a crackdown on racing at Kempton would be the best possible news for the course.
The future of the track would then be guaranteed.
AP
Quote: from empty wallet .
Can’t understand why giving weight away  is rated as the sign of a good horse in NH racing
EW,
History, that’s why. Even twenty years ago, all the prize money was in handicaps and races like the Charlie Hall, the Betfair Chase, etc either didn’t exist or were run for peanuts. Go back further and that’s even more true.
So the very best horses all ran in handicaps and winning these races with top weight was the measure of class.
I was lucky enough to be present to watch the Hennessy of 1984, won by Burrough Hill Lad carrying 12st – it made a much greater impression on me than his Gold Cup win and as I remember it, that view was widely shared at the time.
The Gold Cup was important, but Cheltenham didn’t dominate the entire season in the way it does now. And the Gold Cup wasn’t worth much more than the big handicaps then either. Bit most of all, it would have been unheard of for a horse to run in the Gold Cup without having contested at least one handicap during the season.
Flat racing used to be just the same – Classic winners turned up in the Lincoln or the Cambridgeshire. But flat racing changed earlier, so that everyone alive today is used to concept of the pattern and that top horses always race outside handicaps.
AP
<br>EW,
There’s a supplementary entry stage for the King George on Dec 19th with a fee of £10,000.
The standard entry fee last week cost £125 with a further £375 to pay if entry confirmed on Dec 19th.
AP
<br>One factor that connections may be considering with the King George is the r-h track. Our Vic made his chasing debut in the Reynoldstown at Ascot and won despite jumping right throughout, quite badly at some fences.
Since then he’s run ten consecutive races on l-h tracks – that may just be coincidence especially with Ascot and Kempton closed recently, but it might also point to the stable believing that he’s unsuited by a r-h track.
The oddity is that all his hurdle runs were on r-h tracks, and my own view is that he’d be perfectly happy round Kempton. Not good enough, but not inconvenienced.
AP
