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Lingfield were very fortunate this year with an incredibly dry December and January which allowed the new meeting to go ahead without any problem.
In most recent winters, Lingfield is virtually and actually waterlogged in mid January. I presume the idea to move to Windsor would be to race on completely fresh ground improving the chances of racing going ahead.
I’m not convinced there’ll be any change for 2023 – I don’t think the card stands two days. A single day’s racing on the Sunday following the flat card would work and get ITV coverage which a Saturday jumps card won’t in competition with Ascot and Haydock (how many “Super Saturdays” can there be in any year?).
Plenty of valid points.
It’s always a problem when you get New Year’s Day on a weekend. The other option would have been to have had a quiet or blank Saturday and run the New Year fixtures on the Bank Holiday.
When you get a month with five Saturdays that can present problems as the normal pattern is for four Saturdays. That either means diluting one or two of the other Saturdays by moving fixtures or creating a one-off schedule for this spare Saturday.
Having New Year’s Day on a Saturday solves the problem as the New Year meetings fill the gap but the Bank Holiday suffers as it has no fixtures left. We had the curious position of Musselburgh racing Saturday and Monday.
As I don’t have RUK, I recorded the Irish coverage on the Free Sports channel on Boxing Day.
They had a presence at Down Royal, Limerick with the coverage officially anchored by Gary O’Brien at Leopardstown. The problem was we hardly heard from Gary all afternoon as it was a constant switch from race to race across the three venues with 21 races from noon to 3.45.
Effectively, there was a race every 10 minutes so by the time you saw one race they were at the start for the next one and all you got was 90 seconds of rudimentary analysis.
That encapsulates the problem with TV racing – there are two approaches. One says – “let’s show a few races properly with proper pre and post race analysis and debate”. Now, that’s fine if you like and respect those doing the analysing but as this thread shows most people have taken a healthy dislike to someone on each of the channels.
The second approach is “let’s show as many races as possible” – that obviously means more action but less time for analysis and it becomes a conveyor belt from one race to the next.
There’s a balance somewhere between those two approaches whereby it’s not all about having to listen to the views of analysts you don’t like or having race after race shoved down your throat with no time for review or analysis.
Morning all :)
Merry Christmas to all on TRF.
The King George this year is a real head scratcher. It’s a quality renewal with only A PLUS TARD absent. MINELLA INDO won a Gold Cup at the end of a less than stellar campaign and it could be he’s a spring horse. I’m less worried about the right-handed aspect – he ran perfectly well at Down Royal – and the rain we’ve had overnight will help.
CLAN DES OBEAUX is a past winner and you can’t ignore that for all he was well held by FRODON last year. He was superb at Aintree and we know flat, sharp tracks work for him much better than Cheltenham and Megan Nicholls’ comment on ITV Racing he was well forward and working well obviously wasn’t lost on a number of players.
CHANTRY HOUSE could be the next big thing but beating a non-stayer at Aintree and winning a match at Sandown doesn’t convince me. He’s to prove he can mix it with the big guns at this trip and 9/2 looks too short.
With ASTERION FORLONGES, you’re assuming he’d have won the John Durkan if he’d stood up. Maybe but he’s another who needs to prove it over the trip on the ground.
Of the bigger priced horses, I thought SAINT CALVADOS had a real chance last year but he didn’t get home and for all LOSTINTRANSLATION looked better at Ascot that’s still a step below this.
Which brings me back to FRODON – why couldn’t he win it again? He did it well at Down Royal – we know the ground, trip and track hold no fears and his jumping keeps him in races like this. I’ve backed him at 7s – it’s a stronger renewal, no question, but there’s another ifs, buts and maybes about some of the other principals to think Bryony could just luck it out again from the front.
I’m supposedly going to Lingfield and Plumpton early next week.
I’m far from convinced the former will count as a “significant public event” but there you go. Plumpton may be work of a christmas pudding fight.
On the rare occasions I go racing, I’m struck by the thought I am in somebody else’s place of employment. The jockeys, owners, trainers and the rest could carry on running the races even if no one was there (as 2020 demonstrated).
I get the sense some of the jockeys would prefer we weren’t there – they rarely make eye contact or look as though you’re anything to them. Yes, there’ll be the odd autograph but for those not well known enough it’s a walk to and from the sanctum sanctorum that is the weighing room that is done as brusquely as possible.
I realise midweek racing for them is as boring as Monday afternoons are for me in my work and I’m not sure I’d like a group of strangers gawping at me as I work but I’m not in the entertainment industry (my boss might disagree).
For jump jockeys, it’s a hard road, long days, often poor weather and the brutal reality the next ride might be their last. I don’t know how they do it, sometimes I don’t know why. They don’t deserve the abuse they get from some punter who has lost a tenner.
Their work is my entertainment – I understand that and respect it. It’s easy to retreat behind the weighing room doors but part of me says a closed world fosters closed minds. I think the problem is much more than a code of conduct on a wall – it’s about the whole life of being a jockey – their position within the sport, the relationships with owners and trainers etc.
The demise of several racecourses was widely forecast last year yet, rather like the Foxhunters field after The Chair these days, they all seem to be standing.
Newton Abbot has spoken of the problems but the others have bene pretty reticent though no doubt the emergency financial support provided was gratefully received.
Crowds seem to have recovered well – certainly my evidence at both Plumpton and Lingfield this autumn is there are still plenty of the needy and the greedy (delete as appropriate) about.
If race planning is simply going to be about a succession of racecourse owners throwing money at a few races, what’s the point? Raising prize money at all levels (including Class 6 Bumpers and Hunter Chases) would be a much better use of Cruddace’s cash than the shameless self-promotion of a few races which (if they take place at all) are likely to be run in a bog (which is fine – plenty of horses will enjoy those conditions).
If programme planning means anything, it has to be about ensuring we have the right races at the right courses at the right stage of the season. It may be a midwinter mud-bath in East Surrey will appeal to some – there won’t be any Cheltenham clues I suppose. I’d simply like the prize money at the bottom improved.
At Hereford on Wednesday, the Class 5 Novices’ Handicap Chase had a first prize of £2,505 while the Bumper on the same card had a first prize of £1,906. Doubling those would be better than putting up big pots for races for the smaller population at the top end.
A good few years back, there was serious talk of ending the NH races at Lingfield.
The Graded Novice Chase (over 3 miles and always won by a 50/1 chance it seemed) and the Juvenile Hurdle are both gone – one to Doncaster and one to Hereford.
All that’s left is the Surrey National, that colossus of a race.
The NH races were all going to go to Folkestone which was going to be the Arena jump track for the south east leaving the Flat turf track at Lingfield to be kept just for the summer.
We all know how that turned out.
The problem is the jump track uses the flat track and with the Derby and Oaks Trials so early in the season there’s no chance of having spring jump racing – unless they decide to move the Oaks and Derby trials to the Polytrack.
The fact is we have plenty of “mid season” (I’m not sure how you define that in all honesty) races through January and with the trend to reschedule meetings abandoned via waterlogging and milder winters meaning fewer meetings lost to frost and snow, I simply don’t see what these Class 2 events (the aim clearly is to get them into the NH Pattern somewhere) add to the season.
I do accept they may well give an opportunity for those horses who genuinely prefer running on heavy ground to go for proper money given the bias of the season toward the spring and often drier ground means such horses don’t get a fair chance to run for big money.
Running the NH meetings on the Friday and Sunday deftly avoids clashes with the big Saturday cards at Ascot and Haydock so should ensure the top NH jockeys are present but, quite apart from the state of the course on the Sunday after the Friday, the pool of higher grade horses is such that other meetings and races will feel the presence of the new Lingfield races – the Kingmaker being one such.
With respect, Ian, that’s the view of a serious and knowledgeable punter and that’s NOT ITV Racing’s target audience.
The numbers for whom racing is a serious business pale into insignificance beside those for whom it is an occasional interest and it’s the latter group ITV needs to get. The former have SSR and RUK and as you say the real professionals probably eschew those as well.
Even SSR, which is available to anyone with Sky, has drifted to the ITV style of coverage. I saw Luke Harvey and his cameraman running round Plumpton on Monday trying to talk to anyone and everyone about anything and everything. I presume it’s trying to convey a sense of the atmosphere of a day at the races to those who cannot be there.
Britain has a large elderly population and for all top many a day at the races is physically impossible – the next best thing is to be part of it vicariously through television. If providing that outlet helps people, who are we to knock it?
The point though is what does ITV Racing want to be which is very different from what we may want it to be.
ITV might well argue if you’re a serious racing fan you have the options of SSR and RUK and they aren’t competing with them.
Their offering is pitched at a wider and shallower level – primarily for those for whom horse racing is a minor interest not a major hobby or obsession. That’s why you get the fashion tips, the nice stories and Chris Hughes.
I don’t subscribe to RUK but the problem across all racing broadcasts is the limitations all face when it comes to direct criticism of the significant participants. Let’s be honest – you very rarely hear a real critique of a ride or of a trainer – it’s often coded or couched. The fear is if jockeys or trainers decide they no longer want to interact with that media platform the whole coverage will suffer.
If all the jockeys refused to talk to ITV, the coverage would be diminished (some might say improved but I wouldn’t). The contract between the participants and the broadcasters (unwritten or otherwise) mutes criticism but affords an access you don’t often see in other sports coverage.
The other aspect of RUK/SSR coverage is they are mandated to show every race from their respective courses no matter how minor so your Group/Grade 1 gets cut away after the race to the Class 6 seller. ITV cherry-pick the best of the day’s races (which perhaps creates a false impression of quality). Even so, the coverage of the “away” races is extremely varied – sometimes it’s good, other times it’s cursory at best. As they rarely have a presenter at the away meeting, it’s all done remotely from the main venue.
They are also over-staffed as last weekend showed – why couldn’t one of the “team” have been anchoring the coverage at Lingfield? Let’s face it – neither Ruby nor AP are going to offer much insight to a 6-furlong sprint so that leaves Mick F or no one.
That’s a superb point and well worth emphasising.
I’ve no problem with Group or Grade 1 cards charging top dollar for their meetings – I’m not convinced a “Music Evening” with modest racing and a concert should be worth more in terms of admission.
The question for me is whether the media rights agreements mean courses are staging racing more for the benefit of the off-course industry than their on-course patrons.
I realise racecourses incur costs whenever they stage racing and even if there were no spectators (as in the immediate post-Covid) there were industry personnel (vets, starters, commentators etc) who had to be catered for in all senses.
I don’t know enough about racecourse economics to know if midweek meetings are “loss leaders” or whether with the media rights income, they make money.
Either way, £23 for what was dished up on Sunday (and presumably next Tuesday) is absurd – £10 would be much better and encourage more through the door.
I think Kempton offered admission for £5 for their floodlight evening meetings when they started – I don’t know what the likes of Chelmsford, Newcastle and Wolverhampton charge for people to turn up on a cold winter’s evening to watch Class 5 and 6 races but it’s too much.
As an aside, the only bigger rip-off than racecourse admission prices is racecourse catering prices.
A long time ago. they actively considered closing down the jumps at Lingfield and moving all the cards to Folkestone. Obviously, that didn’t happen but the mid-December card which had the Grade 2 3-y-o hurdle and novice chase was gutted and the races moved to Doncaster and Hereford respectively leaving the Surrey National (don’t laugh) as the feature jump race of the season.
The other problem has been waterlogging to which Lingfield has been prone – they lost a big part of the turf flat season following the heavy rains in June and July which meant meetings switched to the Polytrack.
In past winters, they’ve had nothing after Christmas as heavy rains have washed away meeting after meeting.
Could they be a “summer” jumping venue? Two observations on that – first, the clay soil would need a lot of work and second the flat course and the hurdles course are the same so something would have to give – replace the Derby/Oaks Trial meeting with a jumps card – who would notice?
They would like, I think, to move Lingfield away from midwinter fixtures which were regularly lost to an autumn programme and some meetings later in the winter. One year, I recall, they did a Saturday evening jumps card in late April and that went very well but it was never repeated.
The other observation is the southeast isn’t replete with jumps tracks – Windsor and Folkestone are both gone so that leaves Lingfield, Ascot, Kempton, Sandown, Plumpton and Fontwell. The London-based jumping fan could get to Huntingdon and Warwick I suppose but the southern circuit isn’t strong outside of big weekends.
I’ve not seen today’s racing but the ground is called Soft.
Not sure that’s ideal for either FRODON or GALVIN and will MINELLA INDO be ready first time up?
I’ve backed DELTA WORK.
There’s a race at Newmarket on Friday – the 1.55 I think – not a handicap – where 2-y-o take on older horses. They get plenty of weight and ELDRICKJONES has been entered.
I thought there was another race in the north somewhere.
The Nunthorpe is the other obvious example of 2-y-o racing against older horses,
