Say goodbye to 300 fixtures

krizon

krizon

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Apparently, the BHA is urging the cull of some 300 fixtures from the list for 2011, in the rather bizarre hope that this will somehow conjure better prize money for the remaining ones. Having overseen the year-on-year bloating of the fixtures list, this seems to be another volte-face by the body. Jason Weaver was at Brighton today and I asked his opinion of this, in the context of the list being already whale-sized, and he thinks it won't make a tap of difference, particularly to the pathetic prize money for the middle to lower ranges. Personally, as it only drops the list back to 2008 levels - so what? Now, take the list down to, say, 750 fixtures only, and there might be some sort of use to the exercise.

Other than courses desperately trawling for sponsors (like Bloggs Heavy Lifting Block & Tackle Phone 01273 888333 Handicap), a few big bookies only support the occasional race meeting, the Levy obstinately won't play ball, and racecourses per se won't stump up. Cutting down fixtures would just see fewer races still run for the price of three weeks' training fees - provided the horse won. (In my 'umble opinion, that is.)

What's really needed is for the ROA to grow some teeth, instead of just wringing its hands about the situation, and for its members to ensure only three horses get entered per race, so there's a little bit of loose change for everyone, or just boycott all racing for a month here and there. Let's see how those 'we don't need racing anyway' bookies respond to that, and to how courses face zero attendances in, say, their busiest months.

Oh, yes, another thing - the BHA plans to axe those NH fixtures which have traditionally been lost to snow, rising damp, or fog - so I imagine that's 50% of Lingfield's token six gone right away! :lol:
 
How will they identify those, Krizon?

"Traditionally" could be applied to the last 2 years or 10 or 20, depending on how they want the figures to read.

Any NH fixture is subject to the weather, so it will be interesting to see what criteria they apply to determine which fixtures should go.
 
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Redhead - the BHA decides how many fixtures racing should hold every year (hence its decision to continually enlarge it) and then courses bid for the dates they want. What'll happen is they'll just offer 300 fewer next year than this, and the best man wins. I imagine some courses which do well with the bigger list will fight hardest - some courses which have a small fixture list anyway probably won't feel any pinch at all, while those whose waistlines have expanded the most will be slimmed a little.

I imagine they'll knock out NH meetings which have been the most regularly KO'd by weather at certain courses. We seem to manage to lose our own first and second meetings at Lingfield, for example, so they may say that they can't be run there on those days any more, taking the view (I'm guessing here, mind) that if a course can't work out for itself which meetings it loses the most often, then why bother bidding to have them and then disappoint owners and racing's following? I'd have thought that the BHA (or then Jockey Club) might've worked that one out previously, too - and I'm far from convinced that cutting down the number of meetings will add to prize money. Horses are already running for dog money - a 4th in a Class 6 gets you less than £150, in a Class 5 less than £200 - they might as well give away Pizza Express vouchers for all the use that is.

It's no good bleating about how rubbish prize money is if direct action isn't taken. It's time for the ROA to act like a union, in unison, and show the betting industry that the meat on which it feeds can be witheld, and see if they like the veggie option.
 
Great Leighs will supposedly be back racing next year, Does anyone know when the fixtures for 2011 will be announced?
 
I have a feeling it's in October, Aldaniti, but I'll check. Can't believe we're halfway through 2010 already!
 
What's really needed is for the ROA to grow some teeth, instead of just wringing its hands about the situation, and for its members to ensure only three horses get entered per race, so there's a little bit of loose change for everyone, or just boycott all racing for a month here and there. Let's see how those 'we don't need racing anyway' bookies respond to that, and to how courses face zero attendances in, say, their busiest months.
Click to expand...

I lIke it :D
 
And the chances of any of that happening is about 1-3000, Sheikh! :mad: It's what's so exasperating about the whine-and-bleat culture we whine and bleat about (as I'm doing!) in the UK. We whine piteously most of the time and remain in a fretful apathy about things we do have the power to change, and very rapidly, if we took ourselves more seriously.

Breeding and ownership are the two areas taking the biggest battering in racing - not just today, but for the past several years. Forget about oilfield and bank owners, shipping magnates and assorted royalty - all of the types best suited to ride out any sort of storm - all the regular owners, some of whom are darn well-off, down to those in cheap but very cheerful syndicates are the ones who are getting the real caning. The only people doing all right, thank you, without taking any of the risks and costs involved are the transporters, the auction houses, and the betting industry. The latter's profits are obscene compared to the way owners are rewarded. Small to middling breeders have been cruelly affected by the recession and while it's true that 'now's the time to pick up a bargain', it's meant many have done a lot worse with their stock than that, having failed to sell more than 60% of their stock, and knackered them. That's something which has been very hastily brushed under racing's carpet, and nothing to be proud of.

By all means hack away at the fixtures list, but it won't make a jot of difference to prize money, and barely a dent in bookies/exchanges' turnover and profit.
 
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300 fixtures would account for about 1800 races. The Flat season accounts for about 7000 races.

That's a fair old percentage for a first bite.
 
Almost one meeting per day. On some days you'd hardly notice but in the winter months it would be a big difference.
 
DO - the proposed reduction is across all codes: all weather, Flat turf, and NH. 300 meetings x an average of 7 races per meeting is 2,100 races. There are around 1800 meetings at present, which, with an average of 7 races per meeting, equals 12,600 races throughout the calendar year. And that's without adding on the 'novelty' races like Arabians, kids on ponies, and even mascots - there is, after all, betting on all of those, so they should be regarded as races. Plumpton a fine example - a mascot race, 8 NH races, and finishing with two pony races, all of which were open to betting - an 11-race extravaganza (or totally OTT, depending on how much your feet were aching by then!).

The drop probably returns the fixtures list to 2007 levels, or maybe even 2006's - I haven't done my homework, so that's a guess at present. It should make all of those who've complained about 'too much racing' ecstatic.

If you look at the number of winter meetings regularly lost to floods, snow, frost, fog, inaccessibility due to the state of the roads, Grey, I think you'll find that we've easily lost what the BHA proposes is dropped anyway! Last winter was a bit exceptional, but every winter there are losses due to waterlogging or frost - the fixtures list isn't quite as 'fixed' as one might like!
 
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And the abomination of all-year 'jumps' racing, desperation meetings held in spite of 10' deep muddy going, hurdles consisting of 7 y.o. maiden Flat rejects... and on, and on...
 
I agree K - summer jumping can go too ! No jumping from 1 June to 31 July - now where did I hear that before ???
 
I'd chuck in August as well, since it the ground can be M4 by then, and I don't care how many people witter on about 'he likes to hear his feet rattle' - does he also like to hear his bones and joints go snap, crackle, and pop? It would reduce the overall fatality and injury list and return 'jumps' racing to something resembling the hunting calendar, although, with hunting being over now, it's so far adrift from its roots it ought to stop the pretence and just call itself obstacle racing.
 
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