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In England & Wales I’ve done all bar Chester, Wetherby, Hexham, Chelmsford & Ffos Las but I haven’t done any Scottish tracks or either of the Northern Irish courses. I was intending to do all of them but gave up about 25 years ago and haven’t been to any course for at least 10 years so I suspect they are all very different now.
Abroad: Naas, Longchamp, Chantilly, Deauville.
Cider enthusiasts finding themselves in the Lewes area (perhaps following an afternoon at nearby Plumpton) would be well advised to pay Middle Farm a visit: Middle Farm
I no longer live in the area sadly but can vouch for the products and, having taken advantage of the apple pressing service, well remember a piece of advice given to me by one gnarled veteran of many a previous vintage “you might as well brew five gallons as one gallon. It takes the same amount of time and lasts nearly twice as long”.
Wise words indeed.
I agree with the sentiment of this but:
a) You can bet on the exchanges at close to a 100% book rather than your proposed 110% but as far as I know (I don’t have any figures) volumes matched continue to decrease significantly year on year.b) “New” racegoers, like the 18-25 brigade due to arrive en masse at the Friday Night All Weather spectaculars have little to no idea about over-rounds etc. I don’t think it is this that prevents them from betting.
I think we just have to get used to the fact that betting on horse racing is no longer as popular as it once was, for a variety of reasons, and I personally don’t see any way of changing that.
I think they can be split into the following groups:
A) Old people who are racist by today’s terms but don’t recognise themselves as such. They still think Britannia rules the waves, are deeply suspicious of anything foreign and align themselves with Farage due to his anti-EU stance and “stop the boats” rhetoric (even though most of them rarely come in contact with these media created bogeymen).
B) Poorly educated people in unsatisfying/low paid jobs who are frustrated that they can’t have the unattainable lifestyle relentlessly promoted by social and broadcast media. They want someone to blame for their “failure” and currently that means previous governments of all persuasions, and of course, immigrants.
C) Younger people who don’t know any better, for example moehat’s grandson’s friends who think Farage is funny in the same way that Johnson’s “posh buffoon” persona was funny. Neither are making me laugh.
I agree with Tizzards when he says that dangling a big win for small outlay in front of very casual punters has potential for creating deeper interest especially with lottery style “lucky dips” and consolation prizes. IMO the best way of doing that is via Tote pools (as value31 mentions) but we all know that isn’t going to happen for a variety of reasons.
Something of a narcissist about him.
Pre-requisite for being a politician IMO. Good points re Burnham – whenever he is wheeled out to criticise the government (which is seemingly all the time) I always think to myself “Didn’t you have your go a while back and not do any of the things you are demanding now”. His constant whining about railways for example.
But this was a poor concept, implemented badly and it simply failed to capture the public’s imagination.
All of which was widely predicted on here as soon as it was announced. It isn’t easy to attract new people to the sport. It is complex and requires individuals to be both curious and prepared to invest time getting to understand it. That’s not how things are done these days as we know but all these “initiatives” do is further alienate the core supporters. Soon there will be none of us left.
Another factor is the cost of racing. It has too often stopped being value for money.
This is especially true for those whose main motivation is betting rather than a day out/socialising/post-meeting concerts etc.
Pre-exchanges/tax free off course betting/comprehensive video replays, the cost of entry could be offset against:
a) 10% deductions
b) the almost certain expectation of beating SP/getting the best ring price available
c) the ability to “notebook” horses running well that anyone not on course wouldn’t have seen.Now none of those advantages exist, why bother?
It does go to show what a state the BBC is in though. Trump must be the easiest target of all time to make a “hostile” documentary about given that I doubt he has ever told the truth in his whole life ever (that’s me up before the beak to the tune of $1 billion) yet they have to use dubious editing to make their point.
And now the endless handwringing will go on and on and on in characteristic W1A fashion.
I agree with both of Richard88’s posts above, racing now on an irreversible (IMO) journey to minority interest niche-dom. This will be hastened by a) eventual loss of terrestrial TV coverage b) closure of High Street betting shops c) ban on “gambling” advertising on TV, all of which I think could happen within the next 20 years.
We might be left with something akin to the current point-to-point scene, i.e. virtually no media coverage, on course betting only.
So Labour are trying to address the problem; yet another thing they are not publicising enough…
But not addressing it in the right way IMO. A better way to deal with prison overcrowding is to send fewer people there in the first place, not construct more prisons(which won’t happen because there aren’t enough people to build them irrespective of changes to planning etc).
There needs to be a complete review and overhaul of the judicial system, but as with so many other things it won’t get done because it will take a long time and require radical thinking when politicians cannot see beyond the next election date. This is one of the reasons why the country continues to struggle no matter which party is in control although it almost goes without saying that things would be considerably worse if Reform were ever elected.
Yes I remember Al Amead, would have been mid-1980s. I think he was one of a few Sheikh Hamdan owned runners that John Benstead trained (at Epsom?).
In the early days of the All-Weather there were a few David Barron trained, Alex Greaves ridden, horses that seemed to win loads at Southwell but I can’t remember the names.
I agree with you Kasparov. It doesn’t strike me as being very different from backing an unraced horse that you heard had been working well at a bigger price than you thought it should be. It still has to win the race for you to collect.
It’s not as if Sunak et al got together (as far as we know) and said “right the election is going to be in July but before I announce it let’s go round all the betting shops in the country and pile on Barney Curley style” is it?
Of course you can’t expect the anti-gambling media to pass up any opportunity to wag their fingers in admonishment at such a despicable carry on.
An interesting topic.
TinMan, you mention the downside of taking 1/5th odds and the impact this has on your profitability. Have you done any analysis of how often your selection occupies the “extra” place and turns your losing bet into a winning one and does this outweigh the reduced place odds?
I get the impression you are keen to protect your bank from the inevitable long losing runs that betting at 8/1+ will have so perhaps winning less, more frequently, would be helpful. Of course if your selections aren’t occupying the “extra” places very often then that’s not going to help you.
“If you win hard held by a length or driven out by ten. The raise would be similar in both cases”.
I’d be interested to see if any analysis has been done on that. If what you say is correct (and it may very well be) then why do the riders persist in doing it?
I would like to see these groups removed:
1: Continuity announcers who as soon as one programme finishes implore me to watch all the other episodes in that series (or sometimes a completely different series) on line as if I’m incapable of either waiting until the next scheduled episode is broadcast or god forbid might have something better to do.
2: Local weather people who insist on telling me about “your weather” – it’s not my weather I don’t own it, it’s just “the” weather. This also applies on the radio to travel and sports bulletins.
3: Anyone who has come to prominence in a “docusoap/reality show” performing any role outside of that genre.
