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I see Hereford are missing the fence in the home straight (again) tonight.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
The latest examples have been the last fence and the last hurdle in the back straight at Hexham,
In fairness to Hexham conditions were dire yesterday and the ground would have been genuinely unsafe to jump the final flight in the back straight. Ditto the two omitted fences.
I only walked part of the course, the relatively better part, and I called it squelchy.
Someone who walked the entire course called it heavy, very heavy in places and with the ongoing rain there were patches of standing water in places.
Hexham were not only lucky to stage the meeting in the first place they were exceptionally lucky to get through the entire card.
The question I would throw back to you is which is preferable – omitting a couple of obstacles or calling the entire meeting off?
Understandable in extreme ground conditions, but the point I’m getting at is omissions are becoming too frequent.
Uttoxeter and Sedgefield, to name only two, regularly find an excuse to omit obstacles. The reasons may be valid, but it appears the courses can’t cope with the amount of racing as this didn’t seem to happen as often in past seasons.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
What a shame Worcester have done away with their traditional chase course. There has always been plenty of space at Worcester as the hurdles course took over the flat course (when they ceased flat racing).
I guess that means the water jump down the back straight has gone too.
I am not a fan of these portable fences they encourage lazy jumping and I also like to see chases and hurdles split up throughout the meeting. I wonder which other course will now go down this route after, Southwell, Haydock and now Worcester?
The water jump in the back straight disappeared many years ago.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
I have also noted that Worcester seem to be going down the same route as Southwell as regards having Steeplechases first then the hurdles with a Bumper inbetween if they have one down.
For me i dont like it and prefer it how it used to be.
I cannot understand why they have done it as they have plenty of turf to use at Worcester.
A direct result of switching to portable fences. They wouldn’t want to be wheeling fences and hurdles on and off the course every half hour, so they just switch obstacles once during a meeting as Southwell do.
I would guess they are trying to create two courses out of one to produce fresh turf, that hasn’t been raced on, for the latter part of their season.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Fantastic news!
We don’t need any more fixtures and certainly no more all weather meetings.....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
I’ve got that illness, Alzei…. sorry, I can’t remember what it is. But anyway, I must have listened to thousands of race commentaries over the last 25 years and I can honestly say, by an absolutely mile, Matt Chapman is the worst race caller I’ve ever listened to.
The other day he didn’t even call the names of the horses, he was so busy telling us the breeding of the horses and by the time the finish line approached he was saying something like, "And in first it’s the son of Gallileo" etc.
And there was another time he was calling the race by jockey names.
He is awful – get rid of him, the sooner the better.
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
It’s the best all weather course we have. Who wants another jumps course. It’s a dying sport of the future anyway.
That’s like saying Liverpool are the best football team on Merseyside. They may be, but doesn’t mean they are any good.
"All weather" racing should only be scheduled when turf racing is not possible, not all year round. There is still the frightening possibility of the return of Great Leighs next year – God help us all!
Much prefer the NH action. Lingfield is a very nice jumps course, would hate it to go the same way as Windsor, Nottingham and Wolverhampton.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Yes, I would also recommend Ebay.
I have bought and sold on the site for many years and never had more than a couple of problems out of 1000+ transactions.
They will charge you a small listing fee (unless it’s free listing weekend as it is at the moment) a final value fee (% of the selling price) and will insist on you offering Paypal as a payment method, which, if the buyer uses this method, will take a % of the payment.
All the fees are clearly explained on their website. Setting up an Ebay account is straight forward and creating a Paypal account is no problem if you have access to online banking.
The fees may put some people off, but they are only a small %. The advantages are you will get a much wider customer base, which, if you are prepared to post worldwide, will run into millions. It is always amazing what some people buy. You may think "no-one would want that", but quite often they do. I remember putting an old Sporting Life plastic carrier bag on a few years ago, and someone bought it – unbelievable!
This is purely my opinion. Other online auction sites are available.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
How has this been allowed to happen?
Who has decided that Matt Chapman is good enough to be inflicted on us? Whoever they are, they should be taken out and shot (several times).
Maybe the beer swilling morons who scream and shout through the races think he’s great fun to listen to, but the majority of racegoers surely won’t be impressed.
There must be better would be commentators out there. I never thought I would say this, but he is actually worse than Tommo!
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Courses with Water Jumps
Aintree
Cartmel
Cheltenham
Doncaster
Exeter
Hexham
Huntingdon (virtual)
Leicester
Ludlow
Newbury
Perth
Sandown
Stratford
WincantonCourses without Water Jumps
Ascot
Ayr
Bangor
Carlisle
Catterick
Chepstow
Fakenham
Ffos Las
Folkestone
Fontwell
Haydock
Hereford
Kelso
Lingfield
Kempton
Market Rasen
Musselburgh
Newcastle
Newton Abbot
Plumpton
Sedgefield
Southwell
Taunton
Towcester
Uttoxeter
Warwick
Wetherby
Worcester....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
You can’t blame the course, as previously mentioned this is all down to health and safety. Plenty of other courses have had to cut their maximum field sizes too over the last few years.
Do you think Aintree will be allowed to continue with 40 runners in the Grand National for much longer? Unfortunately this will soon be the next "safety measure" to be imposed on it.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Would be far more sensible to just not watch the "all weather" racing. I haven’t taken any interest in this in years and don’t miss it one bit.
Even without it, there is probably too much racing to keep track of, if you have a life. Luckily I don’t, so manage to keep up with all the proper racing on both channels.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
If I heard right the other day, Mick Fitzgerald is doing a preview each morning from the track at 8.00am.
Why they have to block it for a couple of hours before 9.00am every day is a mystery. Missed the Japan Cup and a couple of the Hong Kong races in the last few months.....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Would love to be able to watch it live, but some of us have to work during the day.
I record either ATR or RUK live, but haven’t got the time to watch it all.
The Review/Replay is ideal to see the runners, market moves, race and result all in one without having to spool through all the chat, interviews and analysis.
Replays on websites are fine if you want to see the odd race, but you need access to fast broadband and a decent PC to avoid streaming/picture quality issues and those don’t come cheap.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
As a presenter he’s not too bad and when he has his serious hat on he is actually quite good.
Unfortunately he has got to be the worst race commentator on the current rota. Whenever I go racing the first thing I look for on the racecard is the commentator and pray it’s not him.
Most annoying phrases during race commentary:
1) I’ll leave that to the judge.
Why not give an opinion as to which horse has won or at least continue the commentary with the placed horses?
2) Let’s see what’s going to happen.
Yes, that’s why we are watching…Grrrrrr.
3) Who’s going to get there?
Ditto.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
We don’t need any more fixtures and certainly no more all weather meetings.
