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Today’s meeting at Sandown says it all. Average runners per race = 4 9. By race the number of runners were 1-3-6-7-4-4-9.
Too much racing for the horse population.
The really sad thing about racing is that as years go by the level of economic madness increases. The bubble will have to burst soon. Those who are breeding from their own stock will survive, but the vast majority who are buying horses will lose money. The expected return for every £1,000 invested is around £40. Even the super rich buying horses know that they can only do so because they have got money to burn. The majority of those paying £350,000 to visit Frenkel will lose a percentage of their cash. There are only a finite number of Group 1’s so his progeny cannot win them all.
The downturn has started as some breeders have said they are losing money. In the medium turn stud fees will have to come down to decrease the gap between cost and return.
Research is the key to a good life. Where you buy a house is a key decision. If you don’t like the sound horses make it is easy:
(1) Don’t buy a house at Newmarket
(2) Don’t buy a house within 2 miles of a racing stables or racecourse.I suggest the complainant moves to Inverness. On second thoughts no, the Loch Ness monster might make too much noise.
In the 1970’s / 1980’s when we had a sensible fixture list each racecourse had one track. Nowadays they have two or three tracks with a multiple set of railings so turf can be preserved. This, of course, increases the cost of running a meeting and proves there is too much racing. Kempton Park having meetings day after day after day could not run so many turf meetings. Which is why I presume they dug up their lovely turf and replaced it with an all-weather track. Bookmakers are squealing about proposed increases in betting tax, but they will have to get used lower growth in profitability. This will not be due to tax increases but rather that punters are losing interest because horse racing has become on big bore
On the same day as Hollie Doyle was riding a 20/1 winner in Hong Kong one of Imad Alsagar’s outsiders was beaten over ten lengths at Kempton. If I were Inad Alsagar I would sack his strategy manager.
Bookmakers are greedy in the extreme. Fred Done is having a laugh by threatening to close all his betting shops with the loss of thousands of job if the government righly increases betting tax to get to persistent percentages. Well, I hope the government increases betting tax to call his bluff. The reality is that all Betfred betting shops will remain open. What Fred Done will do will be to increase the betting margins on his fruit machines to maintain overall profitability. Trump continues the lie that foreign countries pay for his tariffs when the reality is that American consumers are paying all the bills. Likewise, bookmakers will moan and groan when betting tax increases, whereas the reality is that it is the punters who will be paying.
Since sacking Hollie Doyle before the York Ebor Meeting Imad Alsagar has only had one winner and about a dozen losers. A horse Hollie Doyle won on against a very good horse went to Italy only to be beaten out of sight.
It will be interesting to see what the new year brings.
When I said that racing was at its best in the 1970’s/1980’s I was referring solely to the racing itself. I agree that since then facilities have improved.
To improve things I would:
(1) Have a separate turf and all-weather season. There should be two jockeys and trainers championship. Form for each horse would be shown for both turf and all-weather, but not lumped together. A winner of an all-weather race would still be a maiden for a turf race and vice versa.
(2) The turf season would run from its traditional start and finish, being late March to early November. The all-weather season would start on 1st October and finish on 31 May.
(3) The jumps season would run from 1st September and finish on 30 April.
The fact is that jockeys and trainers need a break; some are burnt out too quickly.
Based on the comments read, everyone agrees there is too much racing. My proposal would go some way to resolve this.
I also agree with the writer who suggested the number of listed races should be reduced. At the moment too many relatively moderate horses have black type attached to their name.
Lastly, the problem of the super rich owners running their not so good horses in moderate races lessens the chance of ordinary owners having a winner. I don’t know the solution for this, but the gap between billionaires and the rest needs looking at.
Record sums paid for some foals, yet as a whole breeders are not doing well is not contradictory. The super rich (billionaires) will spend millions to acquire the horse they want (the odd million is pocket money to them) but the rest of the market is failing. In the long run this is not sustainable as when the gap gets too large everything falls apart. When the time comes that the billionaires are winning all the big races and their worst horses horse are scooping up the novice races, then everybody else will be left with the dross. When this happens it will be the end.
Nowadays nobody shouts the odds. Betting shop employees don’t take bets anymore – they simply provide more cash in return for a charge on a debit/credit card. Thereafter they just watch the machines gobble up notes at a fast rate. What was once an interesting job is now extremely boring.
2-35 at Galway today. I wasn’t ‘the 6/4 favourite is likely to win’ but ‘it will win, a certainty’ Result: came 3rd behind a 12/1 winner. Don’t these commentators realise there is no such thing as a certainty in racing? If there were there would be no bookmakers.
Still receiving emails encouraging me to bet ACCA’S. It will never happen so they might as well stop
It is obvious that the way Hollie Doyle was sacked has shot her confidence as she currently cannot buy a winner. She needs to have a period of rest and reflection and come back fighting next season.
It is well known that Hollie Doyle rides for Archie Watson. Yet today, Hit Squad, trained by him was ridden by Oisin Murphy. Now it is highly unlikely that Archie would have jocked-off Hollie, so it has to be assumed that the owner, Qatar Racing, took this decision.
As usual, putting the best jockey on did not do the trick – the horse was soundly beaten.
When will Imad Alsagar and his mates get the message that Hollie was never the problem.A £10 double at 200/1 and 100/1 would have broken every bookmaker’s limit. But then the chance of me finding either winner is around zero, so we are in dream land. Single bets is the answer. In yankees, many punters would have found 2 winners, but would be left with a double, with 2 losers in the above races. So bookmakers win again.
