Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
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High Winds
Cheltenham Abandoned
- Thread starter Diamond Geezer
- Start date
crazyhorse
At the Start
can´t believe it - thought headline was a joke !!!!
K
Kathy
Guest
I'm not overly surprised. I was in one of the hospitality areas yesterday and late in the day it got quite scarey.
The word "insurance" must be playing on a few people's minds to be honest as it wouldn't take a lot for some of the tented area to collapse as it was very much like a wind tunnel in places and it seemed almost to be "lifting". Very inconvenient but it makes absolute sense from a safety angle.
The word "insurance" must be playing on a few people's minds to be honest as it wouldn't take a lot for some of the tented area to collapse as it was very much like a wind tunnel in places and it seemed almost to be "lifting". Very inconvenient but it makes absolute sense from a safety angle.
Steepler
At the Start
too bad. Nature is stronger than everything. We should always have that in mind...
Euronymous
Senior Jockey
Hope CH4 cover it all.
K
Kathy
Guest
Cheltenham will offer money back in full for today, or you can go on Thursday instead.
Revised order:
Thursday
12.30 National Hunt Chase
1.05 Royal & SunAlliance Chase
1.40 Jewson
2.20 Champion Chase
2.55 Ryanair Chase
3.30 World Hurdle
4.05 Racing Post Plate
4.40 Pertemps Final
5.15 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir
5.50 Champion Bumper
Friday
12.30 David Nicholson
1.05 Ballymore Properties Novices' Hurdle
1.40 Coral Cup
2.15 Triumph Hurdle
2.50 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle
3.30 Gold Cup
4.05 Foxhunter
4.40 Grand Annual
5.20 County Hurdle
Thursday
12.30 National Hunt Chase
1.05 Royal & SunAlliance Chase
1.40 Jewson
2.20 Champion Chase
2.55 Ryanair Chase
3.30 World Hurdle
4.05 Racing Post Plate
4.40 Pertemps Final
5.15 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir
5.50 Champion Bumper
Friday
12.30 David Nicholson
1.05 Ballymore Properties Novices' Hurdle
1.40 Coral Cup
2.15 Triumph Hurdle
2.50 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle
3.30 Gold Cup
4.05 Foxhunter
4.40 Grand Annual
5.20 County Hurdle
Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
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Think you are right The Pro
Shadow Leader
At the Start
- Joined
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- Messages
- 9,884
F*cking joke.
Shadow Leader
At the Start
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2003
- Messages
- 9,884
Well, I think it all stinks.
For starters, how did they know at 8am with absolute certainty how bad the winds would be at 2pm? I gather the jocks weren't best impressed either.
Secondly - is the Festival about the racing or the sodding corporate hospitality/shopping village/whatever? It's hardly rocket science to deduce that you have c. 6 hours to secure/dismantle the affected areas and fence them off to the public.
For starters, how did they know at 8am with absolute certainty how bad the winds would be at 2pm? I gather the jocks weren't best impressed either.
Secondly - is the Festival about the racing or the sodding corporate hospitality/shopping village/whatever? It's hardly rocket science to deduce that you have c. 6 hours to secure/dismantle the affected areas and fence them off to the public.
Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
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Ticket holders for today will receive a 100% refund, but those tickets will not be valid on Thursday or Friday. There will be tickets on sale for all 3 enclosures tomorrow, using a higher capacity of 65,000.
Friday is sold out.
Andy Clifton
Communications Manager
Cheltenham Racecourse
Friday is sold out.
Andy Clifton
Communications Manager
Cheltenham Racecourse
Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
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Alan Lee From Times OnlineMarch 12, 2008
Correct Decision
For the first time in 30 years, a day of the Cheltenham Festival has been lost to bad weather. Today’s scheduled programme was abandoned at 8.30am on health and safety grounds, as high winds returned to haunt the Cotswold racecourse. The six scheduled races will now be divided between the two remaining days.
Though the decision will dismay the 55,000 people expected today, and the millions more following on TV, it is impossible to criticise the racecourse for their prudence. Gusts of 50mph caused further damage in the tented village, where a large restaurant structure was demolished early on Monday, and forecasters were warning that the winds would not abate until early afternoon.
Ironically, conditions would almost certainly have allowed the racing itself to proceed but that was not the concern of the course executives. This fiendishly sensitive decision was taken because they simply could not risk the repercussions of spectators or staff being injured, or worse, through exposure to the winds in vulnerable areas.
Edward Gillespie, the managing director, had met with his senior colleagues for almost two hours before calling the meeting off. He said: “It is fair to say our lives changed when we lost that structure earlier in the week. We simply cannot put people at risk in these conditions.”
The last time Cheltenham fell foul of bad weather was in 1978, when Gold Cup day was lost to snow. That year, it was rescheduled some days later. This time around, Cheltenham has rejected the option of racing on Saturday - for which tickets would need to be sold and staff booked - and instead created marathon cards of nine and ten races respectively on Thursday and Friday, starting at 12.30pm each day.
The disruption caused by these winds is deflating to all those whose lives revolve around this unique race meeting. But how much worse the situation might have been if a bold decision to race had led to deaths or injuries.
Correct Decision
For the first time in 30 years, a day of the Cheltenham Festival has been lost to bad weather. Today’s scheduled programme was abandoned at 8.30am on health and safety grounds, as high winds returned to haunt the Cotswold racecourse. The six scheduled races will now be divided between the two remaining days.
Though the decision will dismay the 55,000 people expected today, and the millions more following on TV, it is impossible to criticise the racecourse for their prudence. Gusts of 50mph caused further damage in the tented village, where a large restaurant structure was demolished early on Monday, and forecasters were warning that the winds would not abate until early afternoon.
Ironically, conditions would almost certainly have allowed the racing itself to proceed but that was not the concern of the course executives. This fiendishly sensitive decision was taken because they simply could not risk the repercussions of spectators or staff being injured, or worse, through exposure to the winds in vulnerable areas.
Edward Gillespie, the managing director, had met with his senior colleagues for almost two hours before calling the meeting off. He said: “It is fair to say our lives changed when we lost that structure earlier in the week. We simply cannot put people at risk in these conditions.”
The last time Cheltenham fell foul of bad weather was in 1978, when Gold Cup day was lost to snow. That year, it was rescheduled some days later. This time around, Cheltenham has rejected the option of racing on Saturday - for which tickets would need to be sold and staff booked - and instead created marathon cards of nine and ten races respectively on Thursday and Friday, starting at 12.30pm each day.
The disruption caused by these winds is deflating to all those whose lives revolve around this unique race meeting. But how much worse the situation might have been if a bold decision to race had led to deaths or injuries.
Clearly it was not possible Shadow. You know yourself those marquees take a long time to put up, it’s not a simple case of just taking them down in a couple of hours. Particularly when it would require people to be going up working on them when the wind was at its peak. That was a no go straight away. The corporates they are losing today will all be refunded as they cannot be re-hosted tomorrow or Friday because they are already booked up….so its not as if they are cancelling it solely to let the corporates back in tomorrow and Friday.
It was the forecast they were given last night and again this morning……you (and I) gave out about them ignoring the forecast regarding the watering so we cannot complain now about them taking heed of the forecast. If they were to go ahead with it and something happened…the Thurs and Fri wouldn’t just be postponed, it would be abandoned. Its not ideal but equally its not the end of the world.
