Fewer fixtures in UK in 2012

[Soary Stars]

About time, too?

There will be at least 80 fewer fixtures in Britain in 2012 than this year following the BHA’s decision to cap the number at 1,400.
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http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/2012-fixture-list-capped-to-protect-competitiveness/895276/top/

Not a huge % is it? Were there only 1480, then ...

But covered much better by Rorydelargy:

http://www.talkinghorses.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=430424&postcount=66

 

[Ardross]

Should be one meeting cut per day - 80 is far too few a drop .

 

[krizon]

I have to laugh at the inane comments which follow. As if 'quality' is a given that follows a reduction in meetings. Don't they watch Irish racing, then? And do they think that, somehow, a small reduction in the overall schedule magicks more prize money for that 'quality'? Pah!

I'd also like to slap the idiot poster who said some trash about rich owners and trainers having to ride around muddy fields themselves - what utter bollocks. Clearly someone who punts from an armchair and hasn't met a single owner or trainer in his stupid life. "The working punter" - yeah, as if trainers aren't working, and as if all the owners are 1950s-style lords and ladies. I'm putting him in for Arse of the Year.

All that this does is reflect the results, which I predicted three years ago, of the removal of a lot of mares and some stallions by breeders who, bar those underpinned by landed estates and oilfields, either shot the lot or cut back their numbers drastically, due to having had to give away/shoot/sell foals for 35p in vast numbers from 2008 to date.