Haydock...........

The man needs sacking, this is up there with the Sprint Cup fiasco.

They need to take the big races off this place asap. Absolute morons.

The track is covered in frost/snow, you can see it on the TV!
 
Attempt to upgrade to executive Christmas presents -first bet place lay Hollo Ladies at 1.52 in the first at Navan.
 
Agreed DO especially after reading RP reports:
At 11.25pm Tellwright was still insisting that racing would go ahead, but that he would walk the course with a deputation of jockeys. Both McCoy and Lee were unhappy with conditions and trainer Ferdy Murphy, who walked the track, said: "There is no way they can race, they are kidding themselves - it's frozen in places."

Interesting comments also from RP's readers:
I only live 4 miles away and there wasn't a snowflake in hells chance of racing today , should have been called off yesterday and saved everyones time and money .

The plank must live on another planet.'

'If it is unraceable at midday can Sherlock Tellwright tell us his deductions that made him decide it was raceable at 8 am? A full explanation better be forthccoming and he best have some proof to placate an unhappy public.'

Interesting picture too:

12962.jpg
 
The decision wouldn't be driven by the safety (or not) of racing. It would be held on to the very last second in an effort to save the vast hospitality and Christmas party bookings the course will have taken, which is mostly the reason behind so many late or apparently dodgy Clerks' calls these days - they're hardly in favour with their corporate bosses if they call things off early, since there's always the chance that people, having paid heavily for their boxes or tables, will stay on resolutely anyway, racing or not. Thus the calls get later and later, in an effort to hold on to that income.
 
Chris Stickels managed to call Ascot off early enough, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Tellwright could have been halfway honest instead of investing in vain hope.
 
It's one thing if you've got a little early-morning frost and reckon it'll be well out of the ground by the time racing starts. It's surely a pretty good indicator you aren't going to start at any point if it's as Gamla says, "covered in snow". But I'd have thought an immediate 'no' would've been possible - much as the Clerks know it's a blood sport to keep knocking 'em!
 
To be fair, the covers hardly looked 'covered in snow' on the Morning Line.

However, did Tellwright lift up one corner of one rug at 7.45am and get his heel into the turf or did he actually walk to the far side and check every half-furlong or so?

As I said, clerks are in an unenviable position but this was very abdly handled. I tend to agree with Shadow Leader ('tend' is maybe the wrong word but you know what I mean :)). Ascot's clerk made the call early and I imagine Ascot probably lost a fair bit more on the hospitality front than Haydock.
 
Two Thoughts...

Two thoughts on today's events at Haydock:

1) I watched the C4 coverage and they bent over backwards with rose-tinted specs on to be fair to KT. Words like "unlucky" were banded about and while I know the C4-RUK relationship means they can't exactly be rude about an RUK course in public, this was an absurdly biased piece of reporting to be honest.

There was scarcely a hint of criticism rather a sense that KT had been "unlucky" for which I read "caught out".

2) On the financial side, I understand the fleeces/covers cost £25k to hire so that cost has to be factored in. On the other hand, aren't racecourses insured against this kind of thing ? I also doubt the main commercial loss would be the corporate/hospitality bookings - these would go on and most would turn up. The course's main loss would be on the bars as the day crowd doesn't show and the same for the on-track eateries.

I'm less sure about the tv side - don't the courses get paid for races shown ? Presumably, no racing = no tv money.
 
Uttoxeter hired fleeces to cover their entire course for their last meeting, Stodge - and that's far from as prestigious as Haydock Park, nor has it anything like the availability of large hospitality/restaurant facilities. If it was prepared to fork out such a cost, then a much bigger course like HP ought to be. It seems disingenuous that they hadn't foreseen heavy snow, particularly in view of the clear-cut weather forecasts made public well in advance, and made plans accordingly.

They would have to refund all pre-paid tickets or offer the holders a future date on which to honour them, and therefore I'm not sure that courses can insure against loss of income due to bad weather - simply because some people might turn up and take up the hospitality, in which case they've lost the racing, but not some income. Perhaps if they do take out what would be very high premiums (after all, they're quite likely to lose meetings in winter!) then I imagine they'd have to refuse entry to everyone, regardless, so as to claim they'd lost all of their planned income. I can't see insurers paying out for a day's lost racing but allowing them to keep several thousands in hospitality bookings.

Their tv money is of course paid for picture rights to betting shops - without any races, there's no pay-out.
 
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