Favourite/ least favourite courses

Taunton is my unlucky track for losing. Exeter much better and Newton Abbot is ok but preferred it before it switched to summer racing for the holiday makers. When I used to go back oop north to see family in Redcar it would be timed for a raceday there.Another flat track I often visited was Bath. Cheltenham is a good day out but not the fez,. only been to that once and not in a hurry to do that again. Hardly go racing now
 
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I went to Chepstow once and really didn’t like it. It had been refigured and I’m sure it must have been better before. The horses racing galloped past the pre parade ring which must have been unsettling fir the horses being led round and we couldn’t get up close to any of the fences, which is what we usually like to do.
 
It was at Chepstow that I saw the true face of Frankie Dettori. A couple of young kids who were waiting excitedly for him to come out of the changing room, pen and pad in hand waiting for his autograph. He walked past them with a shake of his head. No TV cameras there so he didn't give a toss about his fans.
 
I love going to Market Rasen and have stayed close by when attending on quite a few occasions. But it is the worst track in the country for extending race distances and there is never a meeting that goes by without the advertised race distance being a million miles out (Not literally of course :) )
To many punters it wont make a jot of difference because a race is a race is a race and it is there to be bet on. But of course to many of us it is a bloody big deal. There are again some large alterations to tomorrows distances with the most notable one being in the long distance chase at 4.28. This is now being run over an extra 267yds (one furlong and forty seven yds o_O) and is now 3m 4f and 170yds.

Good luck if you get involved.
 
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I used to go to Market Rasen a lot in the early 1980s - I saw Badsworth Boy, Bregawn and Brunton Park race there - and I always thought it was a cracking little track.

I must get back there one day.
 
Ian_Davies said:
I used to go to Market Rasen a lot in the early 1980s - I saw Badsworth Boy, Bregawn and Brunton Park race there - and I always thought it was a cracking little track.

I must get back there one day.
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Its a lovely track mate and one i myself always enjoy going to. And if memory serves, it is where Night Nurse made his chase debut and fell !! o_O
 
I wasn't there, but Silver Buck won under 12st7lb there in 1982 just before winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

I also saw Galway Blaze run there eight days before he won the Hennessy - and he wasn't exactly given a hard race!
 
Ian_Davies said:
I wasn't there, but Silver Buck won under 12st7lb there in 1982 just before winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

I also saw Galway Blaze run there eight days before he won the Hennessy - and he wasn't exactly given a hard race!
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That was one of the best things about racing in those days mate. We saw all our old favourites, Bregawn, Silver Buck, Night Nurse, Comedy Of Errors, Lanzarote etc etc etc run regularly and more to the point, all run in handicaps.

Unlike a few of the "wrapped in cotton wool" merchants of today.
 
Least favourite course which really shocked me was Sandown....loved watching the Whitbread and other chases there on Tv but when I went there around 1997 the place was a huge open space dump
 
Grey said:
Dermot Weld spoke to me at Naas yesterday. It was very warm, so I replied to him.

We spoke of the fine occasion it was, with Naas allowing free admission on one of their biggest flat days of the year. All that remained, he said, was for him to win the next race.

Alas that did not happen. 11/8 favourite Tarawa came into the parade ring looking nervy and Chris Hayes had an awkward journey to post with her.

The one that impressed me most yesterday was Fairy Godmother, but I’m hardly being original in saying that.
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I encountered Mr Weld once again at Leopardstown last night. The evening being cool, I congratulated him on his big win at Epsom, for which he thanked me.

We then observed that we had chatted at Naas, and that it had been just before Tarawa’s race there. He said she definitely had the ability to be winning such races. I said she had looked edgy in the parade ring there. He repeated, that she has the ability to be winning such races.

Instead of leaving it till the last moment, Tarawa was one of the first into the ring last night and walked around without any worry. She then got a nice lead to post from one of the other runners. She looked a happier horse than the last day, so it was time to bet accordingly. She loaded willingly, bounced out and made all. Further congratulations are due to Mr Weld.
 
Grey said:
I encountered Mr Weld once again at Leopardstown last night. The evening being cool, I congratulated him on his big win at Epsom, for which he thanked me.

We then observed that we had chatted at Naas, and that it had been just before Tarawa’s race there. He said she definitely had the ability to be winning such races. I said she had looked edgy in the parade ring there. He repeated, that she has the ability to be winning such races.

Instead of leaving it till the last moment, Tarawa was one of the first into the ring last night and walked around without any worry. She then got a nice lead to post from one of the other runners. She looked a happier horse than the last day, so it was time to bet accordingly. She loaded willingly, bounced out and made all. Further congratulations are due to Mr Weld.
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Did he mention any plans to train a hurdler in times coming?
 
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