The Start of the Flat

A

Ardross

Senior Jockey
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A minor improvement this year . Donny is the only Flat meeting next Saturday no longer having to compete with a lucrative AW card at Kempton and the Rosebery and Magnolia Stakes and the Brocklesby is back where it should be as the opening race of the season .

How about Channel 4 coverage again next year and a thumping investment from Great British Racing as Racing for Change is now pretentiously called - bumping up the prize money for the fixture - and bringing back the Batthyany Handicap and the Town Plate !
 
Colin Phillips said:
Didn't the first race of the flat season used to be an apprentice handicap?

Brocklesby on the first day but not the first race?
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The Apprentice Handicap was introduced as first race sometime in the '90s if memory serves. Prior to that The Brocklesby had kicked-off the Flat since, at least, its transfer from Lincoln to Doncaster in the mid-'60s

Brocklesby Hall, seat of the Earls of Yarborough, is a handsome pile near Grimsby and presumably the race was named in deference to it and them
 
The Flat season doesn't need to begin with great fanfare. You can't expect to have top horses ready to go as early as March and still strutting their stuff in late October.

If there is a criticism, it's that this year after Doncaster on Friday/Sat, there is no turf racing until Musselburgh a week later.
 
davidjohnson said:
The Flat season doesn't need to begin with great fanfare. You can't expect to have top horses ready to go as early as March and still strutting their stuff in late October.

If there is a criticism, it's that this year after Doncaster on Friday/Sat, there is no turf racing until Musselburgh a week later.
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I don't expect a great fanfare to attract Group 1 horses - but a highly competitive well funded meeting might well attract good horses that otherwise are deprived of all but the Winter Derby and other such AW stuff at this time of year .
 
Flat season doesn't start until the guineas trials for me... Need Aintree out the way before my attention swings.
 
Well the Craven meeting has also been allowed to rot off TV . I trust this might be restored to terrestrial shortly. The way the Free Handicap has been allowed to decline is a scandal.
 
Aragorn said:
Free handicap has been a non event since I got into racing about 10 years ago....
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As late as the early 1990s it was an important race . In the 1980s it was a very competitive race- and won by Moorestyle, Green Desert and Danehill . It was worth more in 1982 than it was last year !

The last top class winner was Desert Prince in 1998 .

It is a prime candidate for some cash from the Quality Support Fund.
 
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Is it usual for the Hannons to have so many entries in the 2000 Guineas,7.
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I think he had a similar number entered last year, running three and the best one Harbour Watch, not making it.

I thought he had a strong hand when Gusto wasn't even rated in the top 10.
 
I've long been saying that the Lincoln should be scrapped and moved to Newmarket on a weekend along with the Craven. Make it a few weeks later than the current Lincoln meeting so we can have a proper curtain raiser to the flat after the Grand National.

They've spent enough time and money on BCD, the beginning of the season is just as important.
 
I agree with dj. This is a fuss over nothing

If the jumps season (talking about the higher end of course) stopped dead as the flat season starts then maybe fair enough but for most punters, it's all a bit of a gradual transition
 
It is a shame that the decline of the start of the Flat season has been so marked . There was a good meeting at Haydock and Kempton staged a proper Easter meeting .

There were of course also the old Ascot 2000 and 1000 Guineas Trials which due to Ascot having bad ground were moved to Salisbury of all places in the early 1980s and soon died out.
 
Clerk of the course Roderick Duncan says forecast has "deteriorated a bit" for Doncaster and "there are concerns" for racing on Saturday owing to snow.
 
I think the main explanation for the start of the flat getting quieter is in your link, Aragorn. Most of the pattern races being downgraded, or at risk of it, are in the earlier part of the season and most of the upgrades come later in the season. The centre of gravity of the flat season is shifting.
 
Agree with that, Grey, and little doubt it's influenced by all the lucre on offer by such as the Arc meeting and the Breeder's Cup.
God forbid, that centuries of the Flat Pattern should be pi$$ed against the wall, in the interest of Cheltenhamisation,
 
reet hard said:
God forbid, that centuries of the Flat Pattern should be pi$$ed against the wall, in the interest of Cheltenhamisation,
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The pattern was only introduced in the early 70's. The early season classics still have a great deal of cachet, although it is increasingly true that the end of season races are growing in stature.

Back on topic - the Lincoln has always been a non-event for me (got into racing mid-90's), as has the Free Handicap. And all flat handicaps really.

Craven/Greenham week is the point when my attention starts shifting away from the obstacles. But there are usually the Scottish National and whatever the Whitbread is called this year to come so it is definitely a gradual shift.

I believe I stated that I liked the mixed Sandown card on Whitbread day as a nice transitional card when we were having this discussion last year. I remain of that opinion.

Fanfare for the new season is not required. Same as it isn't for the jumps.
 
Why don't they delay the start of the flat to Craven week?

Run the Lincoln and Brockelsby at Newmarket. Then it would feel like a proper opening.

What is happening now is that it starts and then trails off for a couple of weeks.

When was the last time a decent flat horse ran on the turf in March?
 
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