This bloated Saturday

G

gus

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This Saturday sees the first ever Saturday running of the July Cup. As recently as 2004, the July Meeting was a Tuesday-Thursday affair. It’s been a Wednesday-Friday meeting since then and the flight to the weekend has now been made complete. And, of course, we’re only a few weeks away from the first Wednesday-Saturday Ebor Meeting, with the Ebor itself taking place on the Saturday.

It’s a deplorable trend as far as I’m concerned and I’ve argued against it many times but the argument is lost. I will be very interested, however, to see how things turn out this Friday and Saturday. Friday has Flat racing taking place at Ascot, Newmarket and York in the afternoon and at Chepstow, Chester and Newbury in the evening. On Saturday, it’s Ascot, Chester, Newmarket and York in the afternoon and Hamilton and Salisbury in the evening. Will there be enough decent horses and jockeys to go round? And the crowd figures will be interesting. Newmarket have today extended the deadline for their “online booking discount” for this week’s meeting which suggests that advance sales have been disappointing.
 
It's a shambles imo. We have three decent meetings on the one Saturday and yet between Goodwood and the Ebor Festival the Saturday's are absolute balls. Ascot or whoever the fuck holds it now should have put the Shergar Cup on this weekend so it could have been swallowed up.

The crowds at York and Chester will be fine as it's wall to wall townies anyway.
 
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Of course for those working Mon to Fri it's great. I get to see the July Cup and the Ebor now.
 
I didn't realise there were racing fans who'd never seen a July Cup or Ebor before.

But I accept that if you're talking about watching a race "live" then this move is a theoretical benefit. There are, of course, races you would have seen in previous years that you will not now see and there's also a further loss of terrestrial cover in that in the past we'd have had three midweek days on TV plus the Saturday whereas now it's just the two midweek. The same applies in Ebor week.

It represents a further chipping away at the midweek programme which consists more and more of bread and butter Monday to Friday and a big blow-out on Saturday and it detracts from the diversity of the racing programme. The July Meeting in its old slot was a jewel of a meeting and I regret that that's been lost.
 
I go with the line Gus has put up.
Saturday's too busy a day for staging big races. May sound weird, but we just have too much going on that day.
If people want to see a 'big' race, they could take the day off. Rocket science!

That's a much nicer proposition in my eyes. Nice & uncomplicated: "Today we're going racing to see the Derby."

No " and before that we're doing the supermarket & violin lessons & after we'll be shagged out anyway what with all the stuff we did before we went racing ..."

Plus, held mid-week, the Saturday mob won't be there .... well, not all of em.
 
This meeting used to have a real identity. A really relaxed meeting with a decent, knowledgable and relaxed crowd at a time of year when the weather is usually good.

That identity is lost by being just another all day boozing saturday card (although having said that Sandown was great on Saturday). The course has every right to maximise its revenue and in truth the best races are best placed on saturdays but somethinghas been lost all the same
 
The Saturday Mob pay the bills im afraid, and that is what its all about. Dont be fooled into thinking it is about the racing.
 
When I first got into racing I thought it was daft that they had a load of the biggest meetings during the week. I still stand by that opinion. They should put more big racing on a sunday as well a la France and Ireland... Give people a chance to see the best horses in the flesh.
 
Agree about the evening meetings as well Bully. The Brigadier Gerard card is one of my favourites of the year.
 
I have heard lots of people complain about too much good racing on a Saturday.

I have heard lots of people complain about too little good racing on a Sunday.

I have heard lots of people complain about no day off for racing.

I have heard lots of people complain about evening meetings being shit.
 
Richard Hannon I see has complained loudly about it today - making it impossible to get good jockeys and to look after owners properly.

I think it is absolutely appalling - the Ascot meeting is a relatively new invention and and having the July and Magnet Cups on the same day an absurdity . One of the reason last weekend was so good is because it is one of the few summer Saturdays that has not become absurdly over congested .

Newmarket has hatfuls of summer Saturday meetings- why did this need to move as well ?

The BHA really are a complete waste of space the way they cravenly caved into the OFT without fighting them ( the only time they did the Competition Appeal Tribunal savaged the OFT for failing to understand a different approach had to be taken to the regulation of a sport ) but by which time they had caved in on everything else .

They must have the guts to cut the fixture list by at least one meeting a day next year .
 
Bar the Bull said:
Sundays should be utilised way more over there.

Evening meetings should be utilised way more. The Brigadier Gerard meeting works very well. Friday evening meetings with Group races would be good.
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Agree entirely with that. Why not put the best racing on when the largest number of people are free to watch it, i.e. evenings and weekends. Sunday racing is rubbish quality here, why not move more big races to Sundays?

They don't play football matches at 3.30pm on a Wednesday do they...
 
I agree - at least one of the big Saturday meetings should be moved to a sunday - Chester and York for example would do just as well on a Sunday .
 
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Dead set against this moving from mid-week to week-end.
I like Sundays to be quiet, relatively.
Guess the stable staff do, too.

If I wanted 'busy' I'd move to Arabia.
 
LUKE said:
Would you have the same opinion regarding the Cheltenham festival.
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I either attend Cheltenham or take half days. But I would have no problem with Sat/Sun for Cheltenham. In fact, I'd have all group 1s over jumps or on the flat restricted to Sat/Sun when the majority of working people can see them.

I'll put it another way. What would we all think if it was Cup Final Monday, Wimbledon Mens Final Tuesday, Chelsea v United Champions League at 3pm on a Wednesday, Tour de France finishing on a Thursday, All Irelands being the first and third fridays of September.

If racing is clever having its big races on midweek, then those other sports must be missing out. I have no problem with big races at the weekend. There are plenty of jocks to go around. The traditionalists might prefer to have the Derby on a Wedesday etc. but that should not stop us from making changes.
 
It's ostensibly a whizzo idea about more evening meetings, until you realise that they do attract a drinking/puking/falling down crowd far more than the day meetings, with, seemingly, the exception of Windsor, which attracts a very strong local crowd which follow their localish trainers and horses knowledgeably and faithfully. It's very good-natured overall and the crowds seem to really enjoy the racing every bit as much as the social aspect - loads of families out in biggish groups, for example, all having a lovely time. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to roll out to all evening meetings and Goodwood is actually the worst course for post-racing car park punch-ups, regardless of time or day!

On the one hand, it's great for racing fans who work regular weekdays to see the big races, but on the other, the courses are then stuffed to the gills with overpriced hospitality boxes and the lager-lager-lager louts who are mostly there to behave like prats. It's a different world to the way things were even 15 years ago - racing is seen as a form of club world in some ways, for a certain slice of society - there's little real following of form or trainers, etc., and there'd be little appreciation of the 'great history', yadda-yadda, of the old races in the way it used to be. Gold Cup, Schmold Cup - it's a day out with the gang and who cares what the ratings are?
 
I suspect I'd be regarded as a traditionalist in this debate but, for what it's worth, I supported the moving of the Derby from Wednesday to Saturday. It was dying on its feet in the early nineties.

It was interesting to read in today's Post that David Stevens of Coral "voiced concerns that Newmarket's card, which also features another big betting race in the shape of the 32Red Bunbury Cup, could actually have a negative effect on betting turnover at competing meetings."

The C4 itinerary on Saturday is: 2.05 City Walls Stakes (Listed); 2.20 Superlative Stakes (G2) ; 2.40 Silver Cup (Listed) ; 2.55 Bunbury Cup ; 3.15 John Smith's Cup ; 3.35 July Cup (G1) ; 3.45 Summer Mile (G2) ; 3.55 John Smith's Racing Stakes (h'cap).

It's a fantastic couple of hours for the committed racing fan but in terms of promoting the sport to the less committed how are they going to give any of these races any sort of build-up and context? Given the length of the Qipco music before and after the big race, will they actually have time to show the July Cup itself? Or even run it?
 
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