Greg Wood summed it up in Sunday's Guardian :
"Stephen Higgins, Newbury's managing director, said on Friday that complaints resulting from a new dress code at the track during the Hennessy Gold Cup meeting had been "a storm in a tea cup" and in one sense at least he is right. Now that the Hennessy is in the form book, Newbury will retreat from the spotlight until Betfair Hurdle day in February (always assuming, of course, that in the meantime it does not run any more races when there are
dead horses in the paddock).
But in another sense this sad little episode does matter, because it is a reminder that even in 2013 there are still some corners of the racing landscape where it is forever 1950. While tracks like Cheltenham and Aintree are now determined to treat racegoers as valued customers, Newbury's attitude seems to be one of reluctant toleration: we're doing you a favour by letting you in at all, so do as you're told and don't get in the way.
The derision which was heaped on Ascot when it "stickered" racegoers at a meeting in January 2012 should have served as warning enough that the world has moved on from the days when divorcees were blackballed from the Royal Enclosure. As Charles Barnett, Ascot's chief executive, pointed out while
issuing refunds worth £28,000 during the subsequent damage limitation exercise, "no customers should be expected to pay for such an experience".
But at Newbury, it seems, that is precisely what they expect, even on the Thursday of the Hennessy meeting when there are unlikely to be more than 5,000 paying spectators turning up in the first place. Its new dress code was the subject of what Higgins describes as a "soft launch" via "the website and various other channels" and includes rules on the length of skirts, collars on shirts (essential in the Premier Enclosure), smart denim, which is banned in the Premier, and even fancy dress (fine in the Grandstand, forbidden in the Premier).
The detail is not really the point, though. Cheltenham does not bother with a dress code at its Festival meeting and Newbury's insistence that a code is necessary for a far less significant meeting is patronising and contemptuous, suggesting that ordinary men and women cannot be trusted to dress themselves. The result is an implicit insult to every racegoer as they arrive at the gate, whether they pass or fail their outfit inspection.
What Newbury has failed to appreciate, or has not bothered to find out, is that most people do dress up a little when they go to the races. For many of the six million people who go racing annually it is just that: a once-a-year experience. Dressing up adds to the sense of occasion. But it is a matter of choice not compulsion and, if others turn up at a racecourse in late November wearing jeans, that is up to them.
Ultimately, and like so many of the debates and squabbles which arise in racing, this one has its origins where the old in racing rubs against the new. Racing was devised as a sport for the elite in a society with an upper class and a working class and precious little between. It is still in the process of transforming itself into a modern entertainment for the masses and the pace of change is much faster in some areas than in others.
Nicky Henderson's suggestion earlier in the week that he is struggling to find suitable novice chase opportunities for many of his horses is yet another example of a fault-line between old and new.
It was an odd claim for a couple of reasons, an obvious one being that, as the British Horseracing Authority later pointed out, there have been, and continue to be, regular beginners' chases and novice events in the calendar which are open to all. Few, however, have included a runner from the Henderson yard. But it is also true that the fields for many novice chases remain small, which hardly suggests that there are not enough in the programme.
Henderson's career dates back to a time when chasers were often stores that did not see a track until five or six, and few National Hunt trainers enjoyed the facilities which leading stables now take for granted. Fitness was sometimes a relative concept and, while horses could and did run every three or four weeks throughout the winter, it was often the only way to build and maintain their fitness for the big meetings in the spring at a time of the year when it could be very difficult to do much with them at home.
It is to Henderson's credit that he has adapted and prospered as jump racing has changed over the last 20 years, so much so that last year he won the trainers' title for the first time since 1987. The old belief that promising recruits to chasing deserve to kick off with a couple of bloodless wins to "learn their trade", however, is like the Newbury dress code: an idea which belongs in the past."
