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Whenever the argument comes up about “too many meetings”, it tends to ignore the fact that racing’s income is derived from the number of meetings, and we need to acknowledge that there is a place for races which are tailored to satisfy the needs of the (generally moderate) equine population.
Arguably more races need to be framed to give our lesser lights a better chance of a run! The menu needs to be balanced, and excellence rewarded, so I quite see how some more prestigious events would want to gravitate to weekend slots. You don’t need to bet on them if you don’t want to, but I often think it is easier to spot the least-bad horse in a bad race than the best horse in an elite event.
Very much agree with the above, not least the last line, even before considering that my single biggest win last year came in a 0-55 classified at Chelmsford. I’ve never been convinced that a mooted reduction of moderate races would result in a commensurate reduction of the number or percentage of moderate horses, but rather just hide more of them out of sight.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Mike if you want to put summer jumps into a one race summary then the Summer National, although Gray really sums it up with the going being too hard to jump on
For the avoidance of doubt, RedRum, can I perhaps gently point out that that was actually the opposite of what I was saying.
I’m a fierce advocate of summer jumping, Summer Cup and all (the Summer National hasn’t existed for a while now, either by name (since 2012) or race distance (since 2009)), and with few concerns regarding the veracity of its surfaces on account of the watering requirements mentioned previously.
Hard ground hasn’t existed as an entity in summer jumping at any stage of its now 25-year existence, nor firm ground for the vast majority of that. Wincanton or Taunton or Exeter, however…
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I STRONGLY dislike All Weather Jumps, the best thing they did was get rid of it. Also summer jumps as the ground might be too firm for them.
Three weeks shy of the 27th anniversary of the last ever artificial surface hurdle in this country (and War Beat’s conspicuously graphic demise), I think you can rest assured that that mode of racing isn’t coming back any time soon. Barring a steeplechase on dirt at Honzrath in Germany most years if not quite annually, there’s negligible appetite for it elsewhere in mainland Europe either.
The mention of summer jumping reminds me of another reason for my dislike of that Chepstow October meeting, and more broadly of a lot of jumps racing in October generally. Provision of sufficient watering facilities is an absolute prerequisite for courses wanting to race over jumps from June to September – no watering, no fixtures granted.
No such edict exists for October fixtures, when in many cases it probably ought to. Only last year, the good to soft ground promised for the Chepstow fixture proved to be anything but, with conditions officially changed to good two races into the Friday card of what is nowadays a two-day fixture. Even that analysis didn’t sit entirely right with the evidence of a raft of late non-runners and a 103-rated animal breaking the 3m chase course record (with the actual race distance the same as advertised).
Simply put, I’d be far happier running something around Cartmel in mid-July than Chepstow nearly three months later.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Indeed yes, Drone, for nine of the last eleven years including the last seven and a half. Unless circumstances necessitate or accommodate (delete as applicable) a move to Scotland or Darmstadt in the future, we’re Sheffo for good now and will be very happy to remain so.
Covid hasn’t sunk its claws into this neck of the woods as much as many, it’s true, such that we were in a lower tier than anywhere else in Yorkshire immediately prior to the present lockdown. We’re quite good at doing as we’re told around here, all in all.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
The moment the Southwell surface switch was announced, I thought this might spell the beginning of the end of Wolverhampton. Anyone else?
Three other AS courses in the ARC portfolio to absorb Wolvo’s fixtures, two with a straight course that Wolvo doesn’t offer and two using Tapeta or about to. It adds up.
The new Southwell surface needs to prove itself capable of withstanding the inevitable much higher usage.
Assuming it answers those questions of it affirmatively, however, and that the site’s previous flooding issues have been fixed for good, the end for Wolvo isn’t hard to imagine.That’ll sadden me, as in its previous dual-purpose form it was the venue of the first race meeting I ever went to, back in March 1983. It’s also the AS track I’ve fared best at punting-wise over the years, and I doubt I’m alone in that.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Oh and ta for the kind words, Nathan and Friendsheep! No idea how long this stay will last, as life has been getting in the way of such Web 2.0-related pursuits something rotten of late; but as the great philosopher Lord Tommo of the Crown Inn, Bawtry once said, let’s see what happens…
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Aye, agree that Corm having won it that year would make perfect sense.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
It tends to be forgotten that he is unbeaten over fences. His rating is 151, 7 lbs lower than his hurdle rating.
Maybe Henderson should enter him in the Grand Annual.
Somebody on another forum I frequent drew people’s attention to that perfect chasing record (2-2) right after Buveur D’Air’s Newcastle injury. Their own view was that, returning at least a year older and feasibly a bit slower, the first race to target with him on return ought to have been a graduation chase at 2m4f or thereabouts, with a view to campaigning him for the Ryanair.
I’d imagine 151 leaves him with a bit to find to trouble the best in that division, but as a half-sibling to Rachkam Lerouge and Punchestowns it’s not as if there’s a lack of good winning prowess at 2m4f and beyond in the immediate family.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
TRF awards thread updated accordingly, Friendsheep
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Happy to confirm that I won two poster awards, but not the 2006 renewal.
If I remember rightly I barely posted on TRF during 2006, as the fair folk at the cheerily doomed Sportsman had first refusal on both my time and most of the words in my brain for the first ten months of it. Thereafter, thoughts turned to getting a corpus of work on my blog sufficiently quickly to use as a potential calling card should anyone else in the sport have been mad enough to employ me (turns out they were).
I can’t recall who might have been the actual 2006 winner. I’d like to think perhaps one of Rory, Zoz, Zome or Happy Jack, but that’s mere guesswork nearly a decade and a half on.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Take out the last twelve months, and the past decade has arguably been the most stable for Cheltenham where non-abandonments is concerned. Certainly losses of the December and January meetings were more commonplace once.
Previous Cheltenham losses from 1989 to 2020, not including those due to Covid or foot and mouth:
Fri 15/11/19
Tue 01/01/13
Sat 13/12/08
Wed 12/03/08
Sat 28/01/06
Tue 01/01/02
Mon 31/12/01
Sat 15/12/01
Mon 01/01/01
Sat 30/12/00
Wed 01/01/97
Sat 27/01/96
Mon 01/01/96
Sat 09/12/95
Mon 02/01/95
Fri 01/01/93
Thu 31/12/92
Sat 25/01/92
Sat 08/12/90gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
My pleasure! Not been on here for about a year since today – many thanks to Nathan Hughes for bringing me out of cold storage. Anything exciting happen?
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Sunday racing is a relatively new innovation on the calendar.
Sunday racing in Britain celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in just eighteen months time, Friendsheep, and is fewer than three years younger than artificial surface racing. You’d hope people had worked out by now how to programme and develop it to optimum effect.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
With Sunak and Hancock in racing constituencies, you’d expect some kind of government bail out when the well eventually runs dry.
…with accompanying playing to the audience once again from the latter, q.v. the triumphalism of Hancock’s Tweets upon the resumption of racing in June, which misread the proverbial room somewhat.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Being easy on the eye covers up a lot of sins though, in my book
It certainly continues to serve me well.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
The erstwhile Mercedes-Benz meeting at Chepstow wins this all day long for me.
“The jumps is back!” “It’s the start of the jumps!” No, it bloody isn’t.
Insisting otherwise is an insult to those courses operating during the summer which have increased the quality and scope of their offer year on year in the (count them) 25 years since summer jumping commenced, and frequently provide more interesting, charming, storied fare than the second and third strings of the behemoth yards going for short-of-top-class Chepstow handicaps and Graded novices as their forebears did, Because That’s What We’ve Always Done And Always Will.
It’s an argument that maintains that jumps racing, and the broadcasting thereof, hasn’t moved on a day since the BBC last covered the meeting in 2005, all evidence to the contrary.
Its continued place in the narrative of unearthing that season’s Festival winners is thoroughly undeserved, too. You have to go back to Altior in October 2015 to find the last horse to win at this Chepstow Saturday fixture and then also at Cheltenham five months later.
It’s basically not all that, as the young folk say; and I’d far rather fill the eyes with the beautiful views and homespun joys of Hexham on the same raceday.
Incidentally, Chepstow doesn’t even win out as the nicest raceday experience one could enjoy in Monmouthshire, as anyone who’s been to the Curre & Llangibby point-to-points at neighbouring Howick will confirm.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
If as many courses are apparently on the bones of their bottoms as the worst rumours suggest, then the imperative to get a meeting on by whatever means possible and collect the £6k per race in broadcast revenue becomes all the greater.
Not, one would assume, that this was the driver behind either the ARC-owned Sedgefield’s unsuccessful gamble or that of the JC-owned Haydock a week last Saturday, but independent Plumpton will far rather have had the six increments of cash for last Monday’s touch-and-go meeting than not.
There have been the grand total of five surviving turf jumps meetings north of the M62 so far in 2021, and none since Musselburgh on January 22nd. If that was the main motivation behind the Sedgefield officials going right to the wire, I’m not sure I can blame them.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
