Along with assorted articles, tv pundits, forums, etc., there are occasional shouts from the benches on TH for less racing. Too many rubbish horses, far too much racing, the BHA must be mad, and so on. So I thought I'd get the stats from the Fixtures & Race Times Executive of the BHA: I phoned up, spoke to a charming and helpful young man, and here they are, for your consideration. The first figure is the number of races planned for 2009 followed by the percentage these take up in the year's full fixtures list.
Group 1 (Pattern and Listed): 296/4.87%
Group 2: 336/5.53%
Group 3: 416/6.85%
Group 4: 1236/20.36%
Group 5: 2151/35.42%
Group 6: 1607/26.47%
Group 7: 30/0.49%
Total number of races: 6072
Not too difficult to see that if you pulled the 'rubbish' Class 5 and 6 racing, apart from a number of low-level courses closing completely, you'd lose some 62% of British racing.
I can understand that people feel there's too much racing, although the answer to that is very simple: don't bother to watch it, don't consider it for betting. But, of course, people never do the simple thing. They watch it and moan about it. They regularly bet on it, and moan about it. So perhaps you'd moan-no-more if it were removed, and you had to concentrate on the remaining smaller percentage of much higher-rated handicappers and top horses (which, as we know, tend not to hang around past the age of three), which, if the moaners are to believed, represent a 'really tricky' betting medium?
I wonder if the moaning isn't just part of the British psyche, its 'whinging Pom' attitude which the Australians love to berate us about. Because if we lost the low class racing which so many apparently love to hate, we'd be faced with some very severe tests of selecting ability, with longeurs between race meetings and much smaller fields, and far tighter SPs.
If punters, who espouse themselves as the bedrock on which racing exists, and without whom racing could not survive, really are that essential to racing, then it would appear it's a necessity to support those 5s and 6s. We know that punters do, of course, whining and moaning as they hand over their Tote Trifectas or £10 on-the-noses, but I'm sure that if one offered to wipe out the 60%+ of their daily gambling opportunities, they'd be moaning that their supposed wish to see it disappear had come true.
Group 1 (Pattern and Listed): 296/4.87%
Group 2: 336/5.53%
Group 3: 416/6.85%
Group 4: 1236/20.36%
Group 5: 2151/35.42%
Group 6: 1607/26.47%
Group 7: 30/0.49%
Total number of races: 6072
Not too difficult to see that if you pulled the 'rubbish' Class 5 and 6 racing, apart from a number of low-level courses closing completely, you'd lose some 62% of British racing.
I can understand that people feel there's too much racing, although the answer to that is very simple: don't bother to watch it, don't consider it for betting. But, of course, people never do the simple thing. They watch it and moan about it. They regularly bet on it, and moan about it. So perhaps you'd moan-no-more if it were removed, and you had to concentrate on the remaining smaller percentage of much higher-rated handicappers and top horses (which, as we know, tend not to hang around past the age of three), which, if the moaners are to believed, represent a 'really tricky' betting medium?
I wonder if the moaning isn't just part of the British psyche, its 'whinging Pom' attitude which the Australians love to berate us about. Because if we lost the low class racing which so many apparently love to hate, we'd be faced with some very severe tests of selecting ability, with longeurs between race meetings and much smaller fields, and far tighter SPs.
If punters, who espouse themselves as the bedrock on which racing exists, and without whom racing could not survive, really are that essential to racing, then it would appear it's a necessity to support those 5s and 6s. We know that punters do, of course, whining and moaning as they hand over their Tote Trifectas or £10 on-the-noses, but I'm sure that if one offered to wipe out the 60%+ of their daily gambling opportunities, they'd be moaning that their supposed wish to see it disappear had come true.
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