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Last year Haydock held a 1m2f heritage handicap on 7th Aug for £75k prize fund.
This year the "equivalent" race is a handicap for horses rated 86-105. the prize fund £20k, a 73% reduction in prize fund. I’m not sure why but the Tote appear to have removed their sponsorship of the race this year.
The prize fund for the meeting last year was £210k, this year it is £139.5k per the programme book, or £137.5k if you rely on the Horsemens website.
Not a good outlook but then I see the prize fund for the Champions Series going through the roof. On one hand funding is being severely chopped, on the other hand it is increasing substantially, there is no consistent approach.
Rather than pumping more money into the Champions Series of races would the funds not be better spent to support the middle/lower levels and provide the less affluent owners with opportunities to cover their costs and potentially re-invest any excess prize money in the sport? Would that not be a better long term strategy to apply?
We went for Alistair Whillans. Horse is Euston Square by the way, it’s fair to say he’s enjoyed the change of scenery if you check out his last 2 runs.
David O’Meara and Ollie Pears were certainly 2 we considered but as we are Scotland based that swung it for AW, alongside a good track record and decent strike rate of course.
If you are looking for a relatively small dual purpose yard in the North then seriously consider A Whillans.
ES hopefully runs Fri night at Donnie if the ground remains good or better.
Alan,
The BHA should have you in as a consultant for a few weeks to sort out the fixture list! Might not even take you that long.
You are more knowledgeable than I on these matters but is it a case that the courses yield too much power nowadays regarding when they race?
Your example of the 7th May sums it up for me. Could they not have 2 meetings on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday? Is that not what Sky/Premiership do nowadays with games kicking off at different times to boost revenues and sustain interest.
Alan,
A classic case of racing shooting itself in the foot again.
Rather than spending time (and money) tinkering with the Pattern and trying to turn horse racing into formula one motor racing the relevant authorities should be looking at the example you’ve detailed and making changes so racing is more sensibly distributed both geographically and flat vs NH.
Joe,
Can I ask what you think an owner like Tuffers (who has horses that are winning this year but he is still struggling to cover his expenses) should do?
Imo he either:
1) Shuts up and accepts the status quo
2) Supports the tariff and boycotts those races that don’t meet it
3) Decides enough is enough and spends his leisure pound elsewhere.Or is there an alternative that I’ve missed?
No doubt there will be mistakes made and divisions re the tariff but at least it is an attempt to redress the balance and give owners, trainers and their staff a better return. If some races fall by the wayside does that not tell it’s own story about how attractive they are to O&T’s?
I’ve said it previously: Redistribute some of the prize money from the top tier to the middle to lower tiers.
One final point, if bookmakers wish to continue to push for dross meetings like we’ve seen on the a/w why should owners and trainers subsidise these meetings. Again redistribution of the funds to make the racing more attractive to all stakeholders is the only way forward or these meetings will slowly but surely disppear in any case.
Can anyone advise if the 4.25 Newbury on 15 April is above or below tariff? It’s a class 2 handicap run on a Friday.
I’m afraid I don’t have the tariffs to hand.
Thanks in advance.
Reet Hard,
There was obviously a touch of sarcasm in my post but frankly I am astonished that any racecourse would wish to water given "It’s on the easy side of good" and the meeting is 2 days away.
I’m guessing most races at Donnie this weekend will be competitive affairs and any trainer of a fancied runner who prefers top of the ground should be tearing their hair out.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings and whether he decides to water – my pound says he will not.
IF the racecourse decide to water to maintain ground on the softer side of good, don’t worry, I am sure Doncaster racecourse will kindly reimburse the entry fee and expenses of connections who withdraw their horses that prefer ground on the faster side of good.
After all if the racecourse decides to change the groundrules surely connections should not be out of pocket and should be entitled to compensation.
Or am I living in cloud cuckoo land???
Why don’t they run the Grand National on say the first Saturday in April then run the Lincoln on the Sunday – make it a true spring double?? Great publicity for racing and possible repeat business, especially if 2 fancied runners were to win. And surely wouldn’t be that difficult to market. Or am I missing something?
One issue is maybe turnover on the GN would be diluted as once a year punters split their stakes on both races, or focus on the GN and the Lincoln gets forgotten about and suffers.
A scoop 6 type bet split across the 2 days would get good publicity and pull some once a year punters from the GN across to the flat.I think whenever Easter falls each year might be an issue – not sure why though.
No probs with the hijack Berkoboy!!
I certainly take your point about the evolution of the market through the morning to SP, it was something I had considered and will need to work around. As as part time punter with time constraints it’s finding an approach that you feel comfortable with. I often find that with the volume of racing these days my time is so diluted I end up placing bets without looking at every angle.
Peruvian Chief,
Money talks and a 4 day festival with diluted races will continue.
I’m not going to knock the festival as 4 days is an absolute feast but my only pet hate is there are a few too many handicaps these days.
However your final point about the difficulty in identifying the NH Champion novices is a fair one. If Bobs Worth had ran in and won the 2m5f race you could proclaim him the best staying novice, however there is an element of doubt as he won the 3m novice race.
Contrast that with the flat boys where RFC are heavily marketing and pouring money into the Champions series to encourage the best horses to complete against each other at the end of the season.
Thank you kind sir!!
So nearly 7 out of every 8 races are won by the top 6 in the market.
I’m hopeful making these runners my first port of call when analysing any race will pay dividends. That’s not to say I will completely ignore the other runners but with so much racing these days I think you need a simple but effective approach to narrow the field, and the betting market seems a logical place to start.
CR – Very well done with this exercise – just wish I’d followed you in from the start of March!!
algarvearry, I suggest a brief email to the racecourse explaining your point. I don’t mind bands playing post racing but to almost double the admission price seems a tad unfair.
Soon they’ll be marketing this type of evening as a concert as the main event with a bit of racing thrown in for free!
