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Timeform did a piece on this subject late last year…
Best Racehorses of 2020 Volume 1 and 2, written by Dr Sieglinde McGee, is what your looking for Marlingford.
Presented and generally guested by people steeped in the game, The Oddscrackers Podcast seems to go under the radar a bit. Its a good listen, particularly from a punting perspective, if that’s your thing.
Sad that its going after so long, but understandable, particularly in the current economic climate. An unconventional surface, catering to low grade horses, that attracts field sizes that average less than eight, every year the last ten, was probably always on borrowed time.
Its a lovely configuration with those big sweeping bends and long run-in, which should attract some good horses to the new surface.
Wonder will it effect the quality of maiden and novice races at Newcastle though, which has attracted a cohort of subsequently high class horses, now that southern trainers dont need to venture so far north?
Good luck to the new Southwell.
Haven’t read either book and would certainly keep an open mind on the issue’s presumably referred within them, but phrases such as…
“sickening abuse of people”
“US Racing is currently on its knees”
“curse of reckless gambling” (funding of racing)
“corrupt judges”…do come across as far fetched to be honest.
Was a relatively late convert to Timeform. In terms of consuming racing form, having it in an offline database has always been my thing. Computer Timeform and Timeform i always seemed to come with user friendliness warnings, the offerings from Raceform and Proform in that sphere always more attractive.
But I’ve come to love the Race Passes service over the last couple of years. In terms of descriptions, analysis, and notes, Timeform are still unrivalled in telling the story of the individual racehorse. Their work has a consistency, solidity, integrity and accuracy to it, that I’ve never found elsewhere. Granted the competition is scarce.
I purchased my first ‘Racehorses’ in 2009, to commemorate what remains my favourite flat season ever, 2008. Can only echo the sentiments previously expressed, they are beautiful books. Superb journals that any sport would be proud of. A flagship product that elevated Timeform well beyond a company that provided information for punters. A company that told the story of horseracing. Its a real pity that the global plc that now owns the brand, doesn’t deem it viable to continue what is essentially a significant element of the heritage of horseracing.
Can only hope that something like a ‘Greatest Horses’ for each season will eventually emerge, containing perhaps a final end of season master rating for every horse that ran.
Timeform need to be careful imo. The card ratings, flags, verdict, tissue, 123, Stars and pace information are all available for free these days. They’ve really only got the analysis left as a product worth paying for.
Haven’t used RI for a while, but as far as I remember you can export winning distances from the Query function into a csv file, then work out the average winning distances for each course/trip/going using that file in Excel. The Pivot Table function in Excel will do that for you easily. No coding required!
Important article from Greg Wood in today’s Guardian regarding the security of your deposits in online betting accounts. Interesting to note that money you have sitting in your Betfred account isn’t secure at all!
Horseracing Bettors Forum have done us all a service by producing a register of how ring-fenced your deposits actually are in the event of insolvency. Bravo.
I’m very uncomfortable with racing continuing in Ireland, I dont think it should be.
The social distancing requirements that the rest of us are being asked to comply with to potentially save lives, are not being observed by the lad/lass leading the horse around when the jockey is on board. It’s probably impossible to maintain two meters separation under those circumstances.
Also think its very selfish of the Irish racing industry to continue, in the full knowledge that an injured jockey, stalls handler, groom, etc. may well need a hospital bed(s) for several weeks or months on any given day, given the unprecedented stress that is and will be placed on our health service in the coming weeks and months. We have half the ICU beds per head in Ireland compared to Italy.
I wonder how Davy or Robbie or Rachel will feel if the hospital bed they lay prone in after a bad fall at the races means others will die because there was no more hospital capacity available.
I really dont understand the mentality that allows them to continue. The commendable national effort going on here at the moment seemingly doesn’t apply to racing.
I love racing, I wish it was on every day, I miss it, I get the economic arguments for keeping it going and the desire to minimize job losses.
But you know what, we’re in an emergency here. My own industry is gone south (again), hundreds of thousands of us are in the same boat. Get in the queue.
Its a bubbles bubble these racing people live in.
deary me….Ginger your at your finest on this one.
You’d rather listen to the experts, then state our experts in Ireland are wrong.
ffs
RTV currently doing a “half price for the next 12 months deal”, until midday Tuesday.
https://www.racingtv.com/racingtvoffers/cheltenham2020?mc_cid=9e687f3580&mc_eid=fad3623082
You’d wonder given the legitimate and thus far seemingly unanswered concerns of owners, if the ROA were ever consulted on this, considering their members buy-in to the project is essential for its success?
Can see them struggling for decent horses given the time of year. Lots of big festivals and meetings in that six week period, and I’m fairly certain the sense of occasion and prestige associated with Goodwood, Ascot and York, not to mention the July Meeting which precedes it by a week, will always trump a Thursday on the infield at Newcastle for most owners regardless of prizemoney.
So you could indeed be left with a load of seventies rated horses running for 50 grand a race, no bad thing imo. Can see the likes of Mick Appleby licking his lips at the prospect. But are these the type of horses we connect with, narrative horses, “fan horses”…almost certainly not.
As for the team element…its a load of bollox. We form a connection and bond with a team because we feel part of it somehow. Racing’s “teams” frequently remind us “fans”, that they own the horse, that they pay the bills, that they ride for the owners, that they decide where it runs. Its theirs not ours. And that’s the way it is, same as it ever was. And I’d say that most interested followers of racing generally understand and accept that too. Personally I get my team kicks from Liverpool on a Saturday.
Pretty non-plussed by the whole thing, but good luck to them anyway.
Hard to believe Pat Murphy is still training, you hear almost nothing of him these days, although coincidentally he had a horse placed at Huntingdon yesterday. I see he’s only trained five winners since 2015, with a strike rate of less than 5%. You’d really wonder how these guys keep going at times. Doing a bit of buying and selling maybe…
There is already a recent thread on this interesting topic…
In the interest of continuity, any possibility that they could be merged?
