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Actually, it’s more complicated than that as ATR can apparently show the ex-Ascot races (Fillies’ Mile etc) now being run at Newmarket which begs the question as to whether ATR and RUK will both show parts of Champions Day.
The problem I had with last weekend is that it was a very filly/mare dominated card with all three Group 1 races for the female gender which looked unbalanced.
This weekend Ascot and Newmarket aren’t competing directly with Arc weekend – the odd Group 3 and Listed event but the quality is in Paris and that’s understandable.
I can only speak for Lingfield but races beyond 12 furlongs were few and far between during the winter. I well remember the "highlight" that was the 2-mile seller in February.
One theory is that in order NOT to detract from the NH scene, the AW race planners deliberately choose not to put on races which might draw horses away from the NH environment during the winter.
Potential NH horses won’t run over 6-10 furlongs so there’s no problem as these races are drawing from a different section of the horse population. It was perhaps considered that races over 12 furlongs+ would detract from the jumps.
It’s hard to argue the point that taking twelve fixtures from Ffos Las is draconian. That said, I do think some people go overboard about the track – it’s very good but it never seems to get that many runners as far as I can see and I’m slightly dubious as to whether it’s a genuinely dual-purpose venue or simply a jump course with the occasional Flat meeting.
80 meetings isn’t that much in the cold light of day – Kempton are racing four days this week alone and could presumably drop 5-10 fixtures over the year without too much impact.
I do think the Thursdays and Fridays with six meetings need to be looked at
This year’s race was unusual because it was run in almost summer-like heat which undoubtedly took its toll in terms of dehydration.
I thought John Francome’s comment about more jockeys pulling up rather than trying to complete was interesting.
I think the race should be run in late February – the course can be covered with frost sheets apparently. Perhaps a recognition of a changing climate, I don’t know but it would stand out more as a midwinter highlight than part of a crowded early/mid spring programme.
I’m fairly ambivalent about the event to be honest though the "concert" argument is a bit of a red herring. Epsom, Sandown and Newmarket all have evenings where the concert is really the main feature and the racing is the support.
Whether the meeting would stand without the concert is a moot point because the racecourse wouldn’t have the meeting without the concert. Today’s meeting is perhaps an example of where the meeting might work perfectly well without the music but agai Ascot won’t give that up.
Rather like Mixed meetings or the recent "ladies" card at Carlisle, Shergar Cup day is a nice little one-off that has its place. I certainly agree the format now is much better – good prize money and closely-constructed quality handicaps. There’s no need for Group races with the meeting so close to Goodwood, York and other meetings.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep if it went but I have no problem with it being in the schedule.
I thought there was also a delay on the SIS feed as well and it was only the Racetech pictures that were in "real time".
This is why you get rooms turned over to Internet players who spend the afternoon with their laptops and mobiles watching everything and appreciating nothing.
The fact remains both Perth and Stratford got over 7,000 on the 10th and Southwell got just shy of 3,500 so that’s three healthy crowds and all up on 2010.
In 2010 Brighton got 2,875 for its meeting on the first Sunday in July. The meeting was moved to the Monday this year and the crowd number was 1,300.
I don’t see what’s wrong with those courses who can getting the meetings and pulling in the numbers on Sundays. IF a course can’t appreciably increase their attendance on a Sunday, I don’t see they should be forced to.
As for Ascot, in July 2009 they got more than 21,000 for their Sunday card but last year less than 14,000. Let’s see how it looks after this Sunday. On the other hand, the attendances at both Carlisle and Pontefract were much better in 2010 than in 2009.
I know it wasn’t much of a race but CAMELOT impressed me at Leopardstown last Thursday though juveniles winning over a mile in mid-July scream middle-distance performer rather than Guineas horse to me.
Is he priced up for the 2012 Derby?
The problem is that for those seeking to reduce or trim the fixture list, there are three powerful groups whose desire and interest seems to be more, not less, racing:
1) The racecourses: – racecourses want to stage racing. There are various reasons but one might be they can’t get enough non-racing business to survive. Uttoxeter stages racing while it rebuilds its fences, Bath stages races even though it doesn’t have a functionning round course as happened to Newcastle last year. Courses can get away with murder and are still allowed to race and charge fortunes for food and drink fleecing the customers and not caring about genuine racegoers.
2) The bookmakers – they seem to want more racing. We are told racing is a declining proportion of their take but it must still be important. Let’s charge them £400k per race and see how valuable it is. In my High Street (East Ham), there are 10 betting shops already and another is on the way. The bookmaking industry (outside the Independents) is awash with cash – it supports racing like a vampire supports a bloodbank.
3) Trainers, Owners and Jockeys – fewer opportunities to scrape a living foe those already struggling yet other industries in this country have been allowed to die (mining, ship building) so why not cut back racing? Those involved in the product won’t do anything.
So, there we are – more racing, more eight-race cards, more dross until or unless we start running out of horses. No one will face down the above vested interests so there’ll be another 1.500 or so opportunities for the three groups above to make some money and gouge the punter.
I could understand Newmarket’s view IF moving the July Cup to the Saturday was going to give the attendance a big boost but it seems even that is not a factor. Stephen Wallis has more or less admitted that he doesn’t expect a big increase in numbers this weekend – may 10,000 instead of 9,000.
Compared with the numbers they get for Newmarket Nights and the number there will be at Epsom tonight (£35 admission), it’s an indictment of the economics of racing – there just aren’t enough dedicated racegoers to make the current model work.
There’s been talk about football but IF the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd moved their fixtures to a time to suit their main betting audience, they’d kick off at 7am to help the Asian betting markets, The strength of football loyalty is such that I would contend they would get close to their Saturday attendances even if they had to play a few games on, say, a Tuesday morning at 11.30. There are enough enthausiastic football fans to make it work.
On the other hand, when I used to go regularly to midweek meetings, I had the sense of intruding into someone else’s workplace. For the jockeys, trainers and owners, the spectators might as well have not been there. The recognition among courses (who stand to benefit most) that racing is a leisure pursuit has changed the dynamic. However, the leisure dynamic meets the racing business/bookmaking dynamic and that’s why we keep the daily diet going in a way football doesn’t. Racing has a foot in both the leisure camp and the business camp and a whole tranche of individuals and organisations are so dependent on the drug of daily racing that they can’t be weened off. Ireland has a number of "blank" days, so does New Zealand. The world won’t end if every other Tuesday was a blank racing day – oh, apparently, it will….
I can quite understand the BBC emphasising the aspect of Carlton House’s ownership but the Racing Post has been at its sycophantic worst for two weeks or more and that is in my view far worse.
The RP has long since ceased to be a journal of objective analysis and insightful comment. We’ve had the ingratiating mood toward Henry Cecil (reflected by Matt Chapman on ATR) and during the winter, Paul Nicholls is given almost reverential treatment as were Kauto Star and Denman.
While in most years there would be some interest in the other contenders, this year’s pre-Derby coverage in the RP concentrated on one horse to the almost total exclusion of the others. As others have said, had Carlton House been owned by anyone else, we would not have seen such ingratiating coverage.
As it turned out, the horse wasn’t good enough and has perhaps been beaten by a superstar who, had he been trained by Henry Cecil, would now be being lauded as the next equine superstar but because he’s French-trained and won’t be seen till the Arc, there will be an undercurrent that he’s not somehow good enough.
I contribute to a New Zealand racing forum called Stabletalk – long story short, Mrs Stodge is of the Kiwi persuasion and we will go back and live there in a few years.
Anyway, they were interested in SO YOU THINK for obvious reasons and I posed the question as to who would prevail in the following scenarios:
1 mile: SO YOU THINK vs FRANKEL (assuming wfa)
1 mile 2 furlongs: SO YOU THINK vs WORKFORCE (level weights)
1 mile 4 furlongs: SO YOU THINK vs WORKFORCE (level weights)The concensus is that SO YOU THINK would beat FRANKEL over a mile – the view being that FRANKEL, while spectacular last Saturday, hasn’t proven himself against older horses (not that he has had the opportunity).
Over 10 furlongs, SO YOU THINK prevails – it’s his optimum trip.
Over 12 furlongs WORKFORCE prevails.
I’m not sure I agree with any of these assessments but it’s interesting to see how highly the Kiwis rate the O’Brien charge and rightly so having won the Cox Plate and a string of other races.
Some Flat meetings have had small fields too – Folkestone, Bath last week for example. Usually, the start of the turf season gives the soft-ground performers a chance but not this year.
The jumps problems stem from fast ground and the very late Easter which meant a lot of meetings on fast ground for a limited horse population. Easter 2010 was earlier and totally different – Newton Abbot’s meeting was abandoned and the Irish National was run on heavy ground.
While Easter remains a moveable feast, we are going to have this problem and the large number of meetings this week isn’t going to make for a pretty sight. The alternative would be to have "early" Easters with an preponderance of NH meetings balanced by "late" Easters with more Flat meetings.
Interesting to see some level of support for the idea of moving the race earlier in the year.
The "moving feast" of Easter and the desperate desire to keep three weeks between Aintree and Cheltenham COULD be made to work in reverse with a late February Aintree Festival as a step toward Cheltenham.
Weather might still be a risk but with the coming of frost sheets and appropriate time and effort, it should be possible to run the meeting at the third or fourth weekend of February which would put it three weeks or so after the Cheltenham Trials meeting and six weeks after the King George.
Nothing insurmountable for trainers and horses there and a fixed point in the calendar in perpetuity. Fairyhouse and Punchestown remain as would the mid-April Cheltenham, final Ascot meeting and of course the BetFred meeting at Esher.
Your pattern "triple crown" is therefore right-handed sharp at Kempton over Christmas followed by left-handed sharp (plus National) in mid-Feb followed by the climax of the season at Cheltenham in mid-March with the option of a "final weekend" at Sandown in mid-April.
The issue of Easter will always cause problems but I think we can take Aintree and the National out of the equation.
I’m afraid there’s a fairly ill-informed debate on LBC Radio in London at the moment with a hapless host who knows nothing about racing trying to argue the case for the race against a spokesman from Animal Aid who is running rings round him.
The thought I had was that the improvements in the fences and the quality of the field over the past few years were huge factors in yesterday’s events. Yesterday, we had unusually hot weather (should the race be moved ?) and a quality field which meant fast ground and horses travelling quicker.
It’s speed that kills in jump races as much as the fences. Back in 2001, 38 of the 40 fell or were unseated in a quagmire and as I recall, everyone came home safe and sound.
IF our climate is changing and drier and warmer springs are the outcome, we should consider moving the race to say, late February, at a fixed point independent of Easter, Cheltenham or anything else.
The fences are inviting for horses bred to jump though as Ruby Walsh mentioned, the horses soon respect them if they get one wrong. Are they now too easy? Possibly, on fast ground, yes. We therefore have to stiffen up the obstacles or ensure the ground is slow enough to prevent the speed that causes the fatal falls. Simply telling the jockeys to go slower doesn’t seem to be working.
The fourth fence (20th on second circuit) has become especially troublesome and I bet statistics of fallers would confirm that. In former times, the 1st and 3rd had higher attrition rates – I can only think the better horses are getting over those and the jockey thinks the two before Becher’s aren’t too significant.
This year may be atypical because it has been such a dry and, since December, relatively benign winter. I think that means non-AW horses will be further forward and will be confronted with better ground than is often the case at this time of year.
Conversely, I think this will allow form from Lingfield and Kempton to translate better to grass surfaces which are showing good or faster. After a normal wet winter, the opening turf meetings are held on soft or heavy ground and Polytrack form simply doesn’t translate under these conditions.
This year, it will be different but then I expect horses in general to be further forward than last year.
The change was the decision that Cheltenham needed to have a championship race over every distance in every division. When it was a three day meeting, there was no two and a half mile chase of Grade 1 status and it was a regular complaint by some.
However, that division was catered for at Aintree and elsewhere but Cheltenham wanted to completely corner the market so every NH championship division had to be represented (bar the Grand National contenders of course).
The meeting expanded to four days to fill the gaps – add the Bumper and the cross-country race and you’re pretty much at four days.
I recognise and understand it – I simply don’t agree with it. We don’t run ALL the Flat classics at Newmarket and there’s no harm in providing other venues for championship events.
