Today's Horse Racing

[Halliday]

Just 5 minutes between FH and Exeter's Grade 2 - what idiot does the scheduling in the UK, and yes I know they are different jurisdiction but surely common sense tells you to have 10 minutes at a minimum. Almost every other gap between FH and Exeter has been/is 10 mins but not the feature race of the whole day!

Can see your frustrated , but as you say they are different jurisdictions and in the great scheme of things not many punters will be that concerned. The article below may be of interest re race clashes


https://www.britishhorseracing.com/tack ... e-clashes/


Read some of the detailed reports re race planning / and the auction procedure fixtures etc .. and you’ll see race planning is a Minefield

I’m not a great fan of the BHA but they have been particularly pro active in the last few years re the fixture list ... in regards races clashing to increasing betting revenue, racecourse attendance / revenue but also in regards to welfare of jockeys and stable staff ( eg introduction of twilight meeetings etc) .

Oh and they have greatly reduced the number of races that are “ late off “ in the last 5 years .

Couple of examples below of new initiatives and studies ( there are many more ) .. copied and pasted from BHa site

Lead Fixture Fund

This was a new initiative for the 2017 fixture list and involved the use of a £750,000 pool to incentivise at least one racecourse to stage a £50,000 fixture on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, as part of efforts to improve the quality of midweek racing. The outcome of this was that the number of days not featuring a £50,000+ card decreased from 84 to 52. The initiative has been scaled back to just apply to Sundays from 2018 as funds are used to support new initiatives such as the appearance money scheme.
1. Why does the number of fixtures per day change? For example, on Sundays there are two or three fixtures, on Saturdays four or five (or even six!), on Mondays and Tuesdays there are three fixtures except when there are two.

And they are looking at betting activity re number of fixtures per day

The number of fixtures per session is based on betting activity that takes place during that session and is known as the fixture criteria. In the past this has been determined by the Levy Board based on returns from bookmakers but for 2018, the BHA took a more active role in determining what the criteria should be.

In order to understand this we looked at the marginal betting impact of adding a fixture to each session. The use of marginal impact takes into account any substitution that may occur when adding a fixture in a specific session. In order to take a full view of the impact to the sport of staging fixtures we also overlaid the racecourse attendance income, media income and a measure of costs to horsemen of servicing fixtures. The below graph is an example of how we determine, given a limited supply of horses, which fixture slots we should fill.



So think your overeacting a tad , and as you say it’s been done to death on here .. Just enjoy the sport , and remember for most it doesn’t revolve around sitting at computer screen day and night for financial gain ..or loss.

Even if that’s what most of do at various times of the day !!

[ShaunWhite]

All fair points PDC. I suppose I have enough to get wound up about with life in general so try to downplay the incidental stuff. If I sometimes sound like I trivialise such things it's just a defence mechanism to keep the old blood pressure under control.

[Halliday]

Just 5 minutes between FH and Exeter's Grade 2 - what idiot does the scheduling in the UK, and yes I know they are different jurisdiction but surely common sense tells you to have 10 minutes at a minimum. Almost every other gap between FH and Exeter has been/is 10 mins but not the feature race of the whole day!

I stopped following form a couple of years ago to concentrate on trading but the Haldon Gold Cup was always one of my favourite early season races, Flagship Uberallies being my most memorable. The race has quite an impressive roll of honour.

The Haldon cup has had some fantastic winners over the years .. Best Mate , Edredon Bleau, Azertyioup. Viking Flagship , Barnbrook Again ( my fav ) Waterloo Boy, Sabin Du Loir and Cue Card . And if you go back into the mists of time many other greats I suspect

[Halliday]

All fair points PDC. I suppose I have enough to get wound up about with life in general so try to downplay the incidental stuff. If I sometimes sound like I trivialise such things it's just a defence mechanism to keep the old blood pressure under control.

I think given the amount of racing there is in the UK and Ireland , there are bound to be clashes , the BHA does as much as it can to avoid such clashes and maximise revenue etc ( see my previous post ) .. I’m guessing not many punters or race goers will be up in arms about that particular “ clash “ if any .

I think some of us tend to live in our own trading bubble ... and magnify every little imperfection with in it ... and don’t realise how ridiculous it seems to the rest of us .

P.s was pleased to see Gods Own win another big race , he deserved it ( second win in the race ) .. and well done to Jaunty Thor forwinning that Fairyhouse race too !!

[Derek27]

Very Promising, going back some way, Gods Own twice, 5 years apart, and I think Somersby got a well deserved win after Cue Card's victory.

[Halliday]

Very Promising, going back some way, Gods Own twice, 5 years apart, and I think Somersby got a well deserved win after Cue Card's victory.

Forgot about him , wasn’t he another David Nicholson winner of the race ( he trained the “ Flagships”) ...and if course Best Mate died in the race .

[Derek27]

Money's being given away at Zia Park, if anyone wants it!

Can't imagine why anyone would want to lay this at 12, other than to give his money away.

Life Of Illusion, 21-15 Zia Park.jpg

[Derek27]

I think he laid this one at 4.5 as well - amazing to think you can sometimes make more money on a low-liquidity race than one at Flemington last night.

Super Humor, 21-15 Zia Park.jpg

[PDC]

So think your overeacting a tad , and as you say it’s been done to death on here .. Just enjoy the sport , and remember for most it doesn’t revolve around sitting at computer screen day and night for financial gain ..or loss.

Even if that’s what most of do at various times of the day !!

If you think calling the race planners idiots for only having a 5 minute gap before the biggest race of the day and one of the biggest races of the week when throughout the day they had 10 minute gaps for much lower quality races is over reacting then fair enough, I don't.

I assume you think the same about Peter Webb when he uses the same sort of language to describe the exact same sort of situation.

Also as I said in one of my replies, these clashes are usually of benefit to me, not a detriment so from a trading point of view I should be thanking the BHA, but as I said it doesn't frustrate me from a trading view point.

I think given the amount of racing there is in the UK and Ireland , there are bound to be clashes , the BHA does as much as it can to avoid such clashes and maximise revenue etc ( see my previous post ) .. I’m guessing not many punters or race goers will be up in arms about that particular “ clash “ if any .

I think some of us tend to live in our own trading bubble ... and magnify every little imperfection with in it ... and don’t realise how ridiculous it seems to the rest of us .

I accept there are bound to be clashes given the amount of racing in the UK and Ireland but to argue the BHA does as much as it can to avoid clashes is just plain wrong. A very simple example of what more they could do is do away with start times of having to be in multiples of 5 minutes, such as the 15:10, 15:20 and have start times of 15:10 and 15:13, for example where you have a 5 furlong race followed by a 2 1/2 mile jump race. More could also be done about getting races off on time by fining courses for starting races late when there is no good reason.

This issue will become more apparent as of January 2019 when RUK covers both UK and Irish racing as at the moment the clashes aren't noticed a lot of the time as they are on separate channels but it is likely to lead to a situation where races are not shown on TV at all, as has been suggested will happen by the media, or we have a lot more split screen situations or something else has to be done.

With regards to yesterday's situation if it were to happen again the same next year, RUK would not have any time to do build up to the Grade 2 as they would have been showing the 13:55 from Redcar, then have had to show the 14:00 from Fairyhouse which was late off from memory and ran past the 1405 scheduled off time of the Grade 2 which then was started as soon as the Irish race finished. Yesterday, RUK were able to spend the time from Redcar finishing to the start of the Exeter race talking about the Grade 2, next year they wouldn't be able to and would have to talk about the Grade 2 probably in the slot when they would normally be talking about Redcar's 1355. I struggle to see how that is selling the sport to the best of the ability of the BHA. With an increased gap though of a further 5 minutes they would have some time between the end of FH and the start of Exeter.

[Halliday]

So think your overeacting a tad , and as you say it’s been done to death on here .. Just enjoy the sport , and remember for most it doesn’t revolve around sitting at computer screen day and night for financial gain ..or loss.

Even if that’s what most of do at various times of the day !!

If you think calling the race planners idiots for only having a 5 minute gap before the biggest race of the day and one of the biggest races of the week when throughout the day they had 10 minute gaps for much lower quality races is over reacting then fair enough, I don't.

I assume you think the same about Peter Webb when he uses the same sort of language to describe the exact same sort of situation.

Also as I said in one of my replies, these clashes are usually of benefit to me, not a detriment so from a trading point of view I should be thanking the BHA, but as I said it doesn't frustrate me from a trading view point.

I think given the amount of racing there is in the UK and Ireland , there are bound to be clashes , the BHA does as much as it can to avoid such clashes and maximise revenue etc ( see my previous post ) .. I’m guessing not many punters or race goers will be up in arms about that particular “ clash “ if any .

I think some of us tend to live in our own trading bubble ... and magnify every little imperfection with in it ... and don’t realise how ridiculous it seems to the rest of us .

I accept there are bound to be clashes given the amount of racing in the UK and Ireland but to argue the BHA does as much as it can to avoid clashes is just plain wrong. A very simple example of what more they could do is do away with start times of having to be in multiples of 5 minutes, such as the 15:10, 15:20 and have start times of 15:10 and 15:13, for example where you have a 5 furlong race followed by a 2 1/2 mile jump race. More could also be done about getting races off on time by fining courses for starting races late when there is no good reason.

This issue will become more apparent as of January 2019 when RUK covers both UK and Irish racing as at the moment the clashes aren't noticed a lot of the time as they are on separate channels but it is likely to lead to a situation where races are not shown on TV at all, as has been suggested will happen by the media, we have a lot more split screen situations or something else has to be done.

Maybe the problem is just too much racing ? Even The Irish Racing authorities have increased the number of “blank “ Sunday’s in 2019 from three to five during the summer months . And racing in the UK has far more immediate problems then the odd occasion races clash( and it is a minuscule amount given the number of races ).
It’s just not a big issue to most people.

The vast majority of races whic are “ off late are caused by the horses themselves
Slow Load (Multiple Animal Misbehaviour)
Effect of Previous Race(s) Off Late Horse(s)
Arrived Late At Start
Horse(s) Unruly in Stalls
Horses misbehaving in the way to the start

The situation regarding Irish Racing on RUK is a bit of a red herring .Irish Racing is a separate entity from UK racing and even has different rules and regulations.You wouldn’t bring French racing into the equation, the USA is a law unto itself regarding race times .

Irish Racing on RUK is entirely down to shortsightedness of HRI

I understand your frustration ( and yes I’d say the same to Peter or anyone else ).
As we both agree the subject has been done to death let’s just agree to disagree on our views, otherwise it just becomes tedious fir everyone else

Enjoy the racing ..and trading

[PDC]

As we both agree the subject has been done to death let’s just agree to disagree on our views, otherwise it just becomes tedious fir everyone else

+1

But as for the 15 minute gaps scheduled for today let me just say......

[Halliday]

As we both agree the subject has been done to death let’s just agree to disagree on our views, otherwise it just becomes tedious fir everyone else

+1

But as for the 15 minute gaps scheduled for today let me just say......

I’m biting my lip .. and behaving ..so you Behave !!

[Derek27]

A rare 35-minute gap between races gave me time for breakfast.

[ShaunWhite]

As we both agree ...

+1
But as for the 15 minute gaps scheduled for today let me just say......

I’m biting my lip .. and behaving ..so you Behave !!

Sorry you two... I think I was me that spilled your pint and now I've come back in the room I see it's nearly caused a classic, cowboy movie style bar brawl. Is it safe for the piano player start up again ?

[Derek27]

The best punch-ups are started by someone who's left the bar before the fight even starts!