Stewards' Cup renamed

BHA reportedly are proposing to protect the names of heritage handicaps as they do for Group races ( which i am not sure is all that strong protection if you can just give the race a different name but add as a suffix registered as the ….
 
There was already a Duke of Cambridge Handicap Stakes at the July Newmarket meeting years ago.

Yes the mal watering of courses is a more important matter but renaming is annoying.
 
Am also annoyed at losing these race names. Races should retain their historic titles whoever the current sponsor may be. At Cheltenham Festival I don't know what race I am looking at now with the almost yearly name changes. Which race is the Mildmay of Flete ?
I used to think Alfred Bartlett was some old racing bigwig from the past not a potato seller. What will it's next name be?
Permanent race names give a context and frame our appreciation of racing through the year. Otherwise it all becomes numbers like in USA.
 
Gareth Flynn said:
There was a thing about it a few weeks ago when Richard Hughes wrote a piece in the RP saying that artificial watering was ruining courses; the BHA came out (in the RP) with self-serving stats claiming that watering was needed to prevent injuries/fatalities. Lots on Twitter about it at the time.
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One of the few things I agree with Richard Hughes on - I've only ever walked p2p tracks but some of the watering on those, by CoC's with strong ties to rules courses has been nothing short of disgraceful.

Watering is a job that's exceptionally hard to do properly and as per the old BHA directive I believe should only be done to avoid abandoning meetings.

Martin
 
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Eleanora Duse said:
There was already a Duke of Cambridge Handicap Stakes at the July Newmarket meeting years ago.

Yes the mal watering of courses is a more important matter but renaming is annoying.
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Yes and Newmarket failed to remember this and reinstate it the year they got married and Ascot stole a march on them. It was the 10f three year old handicap now known as the completely forgotten sponsor handicap
 
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