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My point remains that too many people find it too easy to complain about Health & Safety issues when they don’t affect them personally, other than the fact that a sporting event has been cancelled so they don’t get to watch it.
I stand by my remarks and quite frankly don’t see the problem with highlighting past tragedies to emphasise why Health & Safety is paramount.
Heysel and Hillsborough were tragedies on a previously unimaginable scale, involving some 130-odd deaths; the racing was called off yesterday on the off chance that a flying bolt may have hit someone on the head. Your comparison is crass.
What was beneath contempt, however, was your boast that "some of us guys" (and as you didn’t name names I’m assuming that you were referring to those who were critical of the decision to abandon, me included) would have moaned at the decision to delay/postpone those matches, an accusation which I find as sickening as it is stupid.
All this guff about the abandonment being due to potential damage to the ‘corporate’ marquees really won’t wash. If anything more concern was aired about structural damage to the temporary stands which house the ‘cheap seats’.
I don’t care whether the temporary structures are for the corporate types or the cheap seats or whoever.
Fact 1 – Cheltenham racecourse makes many millions of pounds in profit every year. I don’t know this for a fact, but my educated guess is that only Ascot could possibly make more.Fact 2 – No course does less to provide racegoers with a decent place to watch the action, bearing in mind the numbers.
Fact 3 – Cheltenham have spent peanuts over the years compared to Ascot, and what they have spent it on has been nonsense (wtf is the Centaur all about? Has any true racing fan ever been inside there? )and to still be housing customers – whether corporate or cheap seaters – in temporary constructions is a testament to the sheer greed of those who own the place.
No-one loves the action at Cheltenham more than me, but I think the course survives on sheer hype alone (it just isn’t fashionable to say anything bad about the place) and is the most over-rated experience on earth. I spent yesterday in front of the goggle box and it was the most enjoyable day I’ve had at the Festival for 15 yrs.
I bet some of you guys moaned in 1985 that the match in Heysel went off a couple of hours late and again in 1989 because the match in Hillsborough was abandoned.
Get some perspective on things for God’s sake.
I think that remark is totally out of order.
I would welcome other people’s views on the New Alco situation. I’m not sure I could see straight by that point, but I suspect I could still have ridden a more tactically astute race than Mr Russell……
hmmmmm……..I suspect you would have fallen off over the first fence…..if you’d have made it that far. And if you have talents unknown to me, and I am wrong in that assessment, the 4 stone overweight would have done him anyway.
I can’t believe it’s been abandoned, worst decision ever, it must be something to do withe the safety of the corporate tents, because you’d definitely race in these winds. Why not close the tented villages and let the racing carry on? How do they know the winds won’t abate before lunchtime?
Please make it impossible to repair so all the corporate hospitality types have to brave the elements…..
Just watched it now – thought Fontwell was bad on National Spirit hurdle day 2 yrs ago but I’ve never seen anything like this….disgraceful really, makes you wonder how waterlogged it would have to be to make them abandon before racing.
I agree with Paul – the current lull is merely the "eye of the storm" according to the met office men, and the worst of it is due back in the Taunton area during racing this afternoon. I am amazed that they haven’t abandoned.
Actually just heard the Met Office advise people to stay away from coastal areas if at all possible – never heard that before, it must be a bad one brewing.
Thanks UM – won’t see my name in print until June at the earliest when the RP analysis switches from the racecourse to the offices in Compton.
Cardiff have beaten ‘boro 2-0 and I’ve just been offered a job with the Racing Post……..somebody pinch me?
5 fav’s and a jt-fav? I thought £11.20 was good. If you’re going to place a bet and not bother to find out how the dividend is calculated, then please don’t come on a forum like this and moan when it doesn’t live up to your expectations. If you do, expect to have it pointed out to you.
I agree with you chloed. The man is a scruff. However, having seen him in a jacket and tie, where he looked like he was off for a regular court appearance, I am now prepared to put up with his jumpers. What I can’t forgive is the fact that he always looks yellow, with brown bags under his eyes, like a panda photographed on sepia, and with the bleary-eyes of someone who can’t get up in the morning.
Hang on, isn’t this a racing forum?
I don’t think it’s to do with health and safety so much as with a general trend towards jockeys having the whip hand over officials nowadays, much to the detriment of the sport.
I don’t belieeeeeeeeeeve it! I watched the early races from Stratford (4 hurdles to a circuit, missing out the water chases) and I jestingly said that when later on they miss out some because of the low sun we will have the first ever chase bumper!
Incidentally, we took one to Bangor yesterday for a ‘Chase – our jockey told us afterwards that Mattie Batchelor started joking around at the start saying things like "this is terrible i can’t even see the first fence, sir" – the starter went straight onto his walkie-talkie and they dolled it off. It was cloudy and grey at the time.
