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Just looking at a racecard from a Southwell meeting 3 weeks ago. There’s a full page ad in there stating "All New, ALL STARS, All Weather" and goes on to say "The Best of British A-W Horse Racing 26 October 2013 – 18 April 2014 EVERY RACE COUNTS!"
I’m sure that it does – every Class 6 Handicap and Claimer etc.!!
I don’t think that the crowd of regulars that I see at Southwell are getting excited at the prospect of seeing "All Stars", to them it’s just a lot of the old familiar horses turning out again.
Perhaps the courses should be giving a bit more information about the Championships. I’m not having a dig at the extra prize money going into the All Weather scene, but let’s "improve the narrative" (terrible phrase!).
On a slightly different tack. Does anyone agree that to any occasional racegoers and a lot of betting shop punters the "All Weather Championships" are meaningless?
Being retired I now have enough time to watch racing on ATR/C4 closely and spend more time on website study etc. I still find it somewhat misleading when a fixture at my local track, Southwell, is described as being an "All Weather Championships" meeting. Surely, it’s unlikely that any horse running there will feature on Finals Day and if it does will probably be a big outsider (Southwell form at Lingfield??).
I don’t think that there is any clear path towards the Finals (yes I know that winners of certain races qualify) and even if there is does it have any influence on encouraging new and occasional racegoers to attend meetings from now to March?
I thought it was a bit mean of the stewards to fine Twister £140 for allegedly waving his belt at the Moose to get him to start. Would also have been in trouble if he’d refused to race again so he couldn’t win!!
Sorry to hear of your bad experience yesterday BHL, but I am not really surprised unfortunately.
I also try to avoid Saturday meetings where possible (Leicester recently on Ladies Day was bad enough) and definitely at York. I had a chance to go yesterday as part of a syndicate, but couldn’t bear the thought of the pre-race hassle getting in and fighting my way through the p***heads after.
It annoys me when you hear reporters like Alan Lee today on the Sunday Forum saying that everybody likes York!! Maybe if you’re getting paid for going, have a comfortable press room to retreat to and escape the mayhem outside you have a different point of view.
I really don’t understand why a lot of people go to the races when they have no interest in racing and just want to drink for 5 – 6 hours. Why not save themselves the admission money and the price of expensive drinks and instead go to their local Wetherspoons or wherever is cheap nowadays!!
Yes, I saw the race and my initial reaction was that the handicapper may just have caught up with him for now. I wouldn’t have him as a horse to follow as Friday’s result won’t see him on any lower OR!
Don’t know about any falling out, but no-one could doubt her jockeyship if they saw the Queen’s horses documentary with Hayley’s brilliant ride on Sign Manual at Newbury.
Personally I would take it as a plus rather than a minus if she was riding any horse that I fancied.
I grew up thinking that The Derby was the greatest race in the world. I go back to the year when Larkspur won (1962) and there were 7 fallers on Tattenham Corner. I used to run home from school on a Wednesday afternoon to see it and then in later years I used to take a radio to work to listen to the race if I couldn’t get time off!
I’m not saying there has to be 20 runners, in 1962 there were 26 and look what happened, but I would like to see more genuine British challengers, a few more owners that are more racing than breeding minded and a race to get excited about again.
For the last few years The Derby has left me feeling like the kid who finds out that Santa Claus isn’t real and Christmas isn’t the same anymore!!
Standby for mass destruction of another card!!
Nottingham today already has 13 non-runners, as I write. I live not too far away and yesterday it never stopped raining, so I would imagine, knowing that course, that if they had similar it will definitely be soft going today. At last week’s meeting they were pretty quick to change the going to good to soft after some rainfall.
Hold all bets the final fields will bear no resemblance to the card in this morning’s paper!!
That’s a good spot about the interference. I was away for a few days and now you’ve mentioned it I haven’t seen any glitches since returning.
I even went on a SKY forum to try and get a solution to the problem (without any joy) so fingers crossed!!
I’m sure I saw a similar problem (briefly) on ITV HD tonight!! Could just have been a reaction to Britain’s Got Talent??!!
I agree with all the comments about the risk of a horse ambling out of the stalls and then not running. As seasoned racegoers/punters we all know that horses have different temperaments and the price sometimes reflects this
but
it still seems like bad PR for the sport when you try to explain this to a first time racegoer who never gets a run for their hard earned cash.
Will it encourage them to "Come Racing" again as Big Mac used to say!!
I am getting really fed up with multiple non-runners. I feel it’s a waste of time studying form for any race and trying to get value from an early bet, when a race can be reduced from say 10 to 7 runners and your e w bet at a longer price is only on 2 places.
I think a lot of trainers react too quickly to slight going changes and have you noticed how the later races at evening meetings always have lots of "nonners" – is it a case of trainers/owners wanting to leave early if it’s not a pleasant evening?
I know that he’s not to everyone’s taste, but Big Mac created an excitement in the betting ring that Tanya never will. She is probably a very nice person, but weak and uninspiring in this role.
I have to admit that I didn’t like Graham Cunningham at first but I am now warming to him considerably.
Mick Fitz seems to be a bit of a Marmite presenter, you either love or hate him and I must profess to the former. He’s been there and done it and adds humour as well as knowledge to the job.
Gina Bryce, sorry but I have to hit the mute button as soon as she comes on. If she is on ATR Racing News I usually switch it straight off.
The race analysis seems ‘bitty’ to me, the interviews sometimes lacking depth and the betting coverage poor. I was annoyed at York on Wednesday when there wasn’t time for an interview with James Fanshawe after Society Rock’s win. I was really looking forward to that and guess what we had the arty crowd scene shots to finish the programme!!
Just counted up the number of non-runners today at the 7 meetings. 43 in total. Strangely this is one less than the number of runners in all the races tonight at Hamilton!!
Please let’s put more emphasis on quality than quantity of racing!!
As an aside I didn’t like the sight of Jamie Spencer breaking his neck to weigh in after the 3.15 at Chester so that he could dash off to Ascot. He pulled the horse up really quickly and I can see safety issues arising from his obvious haste.
Rob,
Thanks for your comments. I agree that there should be a maximum of 6 meetings and I might even go as far as 2 evening ones in May. I know that it is still light until about 9.00 pm, but I went to Doncaster last Saturday and by about 7.30 it wasn’t really enjoyable to be standing outside. With very few exceptions recently I can’t imagine many evening meetings have been held in good racegoing weather (mind that could have been said for most of 2012!).
The early starts ie 5.10/5.15 suit no racegoers really. If you’re working you can’t easily get there and if you’re on holiday the timing means that you can’t do much before or after the meeting.
I appreciate your comments about NH racing, but I feel it could perhaps scale back a little. I notice that Haydock has it’s good mixed meeting tomorrow and there is another meeting at Hexham. That would mean only 1 day without jump racing since the new season started on 28 April.
Peter
Thanks for all the replies – looks like I’ll be OK to listen to the race on the car radio.
Just a thought on the same lines – I miss the regular reading of the racing results on the radio. If you were ever on a long journey it was something else to keep you up to date with the racing. I always seemed to be hanging on to hope with an each way bet that my horse would be the next one to be read out if not 1st or 2nd. There was then always the last resort – non-runners!!
Happy days?!
Newmarket was always renowned for having good going at all times of the year. There is no need to water there and indeed on most other courses. Clerks of Courses are trying to get "perfect" going always and it’s not possible with the British climate.
How many courses can’t take more than a shower of rain before there is false ground caused by over-watering.
One of my local tracks, Nottingham, is one of the worst. A day of moderate rain just before a meeting soon turns the going soft/heavy with multiple non-runners.
I agree with you Yeats the race this year seemed to lack excitement. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to see a National with carnage at one of the fences and fatalaties, but this year there was almost an obsession in many quarters about how incident free the race was.
I think it was a case that the winner was overlooked somewhat in the coverage of how many finished the race and how few fallers there were.
Does the race now justify 500K to the winner? I would suggest that in 20 years time the name of Auroras Encore will be remembered by very few non-racing people, and even some that do follow the sport.
