Forum Replies Created
- Posts
When the original ATR was on the go i used to get hugely frustrated on saturdays during the winter when you would have four good quality jump meetings and the donkey racing at Southwell. They didn’t have time to show all five meetings so needless to say they would drop one of the jumps meetings and show the dross on the sand.
I’ll say it again. There is too much racing for one channel.
As for the point about the subscriptions RUK have stated that their courses shared £65million last year from the sale of worldwide media rights so there would be enough in the pot for all UK courses. However i hope it doesn’t come to that as i think the current set up is fine.
RUK does have it’s flaws(as do ATR) but we need two channels.
Do not fear sir , the dross channel will get its due rewards in the fullness , just wait until the cream of Irish racing switches ,,,,then we shall see some rapid movement…perhaps some old scores settled , and please God , it will be off our screens for good
Yay ….off with the dross channel ….soonest please
imo
Why do you want ATR off the screens? It’s not that bad.
There’s too much racing for one channel and that’s before we add the Irish action.
Espmadrid, i bow to your superior knowledge. I was wrong about Huntingdon as well. We can add Fakenham to the list of courses with a jump by the winning post. And Aintree of course!! I can recall races at Perth and Newbury having issues with horses being squeezed out at the Elbow. I think it is the decisions of the stewards at Stratford which have brought this course into the limelight.
APracing, there has been a tendency from some racecourses to move their final hurdles nearer to the winning line in recent years with Chepstow, Towcester and Plumpton amongst those doing so. It puts a greater premium on jumping but obviously causes problems at Stratford.
Result reverse again due to the water jump getting in their way
The problem is clearly the water jump. Several years ago this was solved by removing it, re-siting the last fence and adding another fence in the home straight.
However, some decided this had created an issue with unusually high number of fallers at the second last, which had to be positioned early in the home straight after the final bend. The course reverted to it’s previous configuration and we are back to square one again.
The solution to just remove the water jump would seem simple, but I’m sure there are still regulations laid down by the BHA on how many obstacles have to be jumped – 12 fences in a 2 mile chase. Removing the water jump would only leave 11 over that distance, so an extra fence would need to be added somewhere. That in itself is a problem as there are also regulations on minimum distances between fences and siting of fences a sufficient distance from starting points, road/path crossings and bends.
I don’t recall Stratford removing their water jump at any time.
With the second last fence having been removed there is now room to shift the last fence further back. Maybe someone could correct me but Newbury, Perth and Huntingdon all have water jumps beside the winning post but their final fences appear further back than Stratford’s which allows more time for horses to make room to go around the water.
Has anyone been to Cartmel? I always enjoy watching racing from there and it looks like a beautiful course but i believe that the viewing is awful.
For me i will only go racing if i can watch all the action in the flesh. If i want to watch racing on a tv screen i’ll do it in the comfort of my own home.
I don’t have a problem with mediocrity as you can have a cracking finish between two horses rated in the 50s or between two horses rated in the 120s. I enjoy watching racing from the likes of Beverley and Hamilton as much as Goodwood or Newmarket.
British racing’s biggest selling point is it’s variety. With racecourses as different as Chester and Newmarket on the flat and Cartmel and Cheltenham over jumps there is enough diversity in the types of racing run to keep everyone happy. The big danger now is the risk of AW racing taking over the calendar and leading us down the road towards the snoozefest that is American racing.
The difficulty of compiling the fixture list is trying to keep owners, trainers, bookmakers, broadcasters, punters and racegoers happy. Good luck to anyone trying to sort that lot out!!
In my opinion there are too many big races on saturdays which means that races that deserve to make the headlines that day are overshadowed by a card elsewhere. Meanwhile sunday racing is crying out for more big events.
As someone who always enjoyed playing canadian yankees the easter monday was a favourite day as i would end up with about a dozen canadians on the go so even when one of my horses lost i would still have a pile of betting slips that could still be the one.
If i could bring back any old racing traditions the 16 meeting easter monday would be right up there along side the four mile chase at Cheltenham on new years day.
I would be disappointed if they moved it as Sandown is THE home of the Whitbread. Although as a jumps rather than flat man i am not a big fan of mixed meetings i always thought it worked on Whitbread day.
As for Cheltenham it has more than enough big meetings as it is.
And finally the BHB still have to come up with a better finish to the NH season and then a decent break before the start of the new season.
When Brave Inca was pipped in his first attempt at the Champion Hurdle it was suggested on that weekend’s Morning Line that he go chasing. The next year he wins the Champion.
I see no reason why MTOY can’t improve the couple of pounds he needs to overturn the form with Jezki. It’s not to say he will but he should be given the chance.
As for Ayr well this was the right time for Nicky Henderson to try the hood and new bridle as this race was an afterthought. Now we know it doesn’t work. And MTOY is hardly the first horse to disappoint in his first run after the festival.
There are pluses and minuses with the changes that channel 4 made. I was fed up listening to John Francome telling us what a great ride the jockey on the winning horse had just given and i think that Graham Cunningham and Mick Fitz are great additions. However the loss of Alastair Down is still felt on the big occasions and McCririck did make the programme more entertaining.
The big criticism i have of C4’s coverage is their camera angles. Nothing annoys me more than not seeing EVERY horse jumping a fence in the early stages of the race and too often C4 seem to be going for the arty shot rather than the best possible view.
Surely it’s not too much to ask to have a stationary camera at each fence in the national so we can see all the horses go over the fences instead of just the leaders.
However in general i think that Channel 4 are doing a coog job.
