THE CIRCUS IS COMING TO TOWN

When musing over the general theme of planned innovations and change, things can be put into a more realistic perspective by looking back at how the future was imagined a few decades back, then comparing the forecasts with how it all  eventually panned out. Take for example the following :

" We have looked at all manner of different things. Sunday markets, caravan  club sites, clay pigeons, squash courts and so on but most have been knocked -on the head for one reason or another.

"We are now looking really seriously at horse activities -such as an eventing course, a show jumping course, a dressage ring, additional stabling and even livery stables.We are getting experts to look at the problems involved. It must be viable and we  wouldn't risk upsetting the racing."

This is an extract from a Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker interview with the then Lingfield Clerk of the Course John  Hughes, published in the August 1975 edition of Pacemaker & The Horseman.

At the time Ladbrokes had recently purchased the Surrey venue. Hughes seemingly convinced the writer that a glowing future lay ahead.

Fitzgeorge-Parker wrote, " By 1980 Lingfield should be a Grade 1 Flat racecourse, staging important prestige events and providing large crowds with the highest level of entertainment that racing can offer."

It was clear then that Lingfield was chomping at the bit to be open to new ideas, so in a way it is not surprising that the track installed an all weather surface, then even replaced it with a more agreeable version. As it happens, this all occurred after Ladbrokes had released their tenure.

The old course gradings are now obsolete but you could say that in a roundabout way, just like when the people try to interpret Nostradamus by back-fitting to fit in with his dubious predictions, that Lingfield did become a top level track, if only for racing in the All Weather sphere, one that albeit still doesn't count for many of us.

The turf fixtures remain ordinary with the Lingfield Derby Trial, supported by the Oaks Trial, still standing out above the other contests. In the four and a half decades since the article was published four winners each of the Lingfield events have gone on to Epsom success, the last Blue Riband winner being High Rise in 1998. The Chester trials blow them out the water.

Thus for many of us who have no consideration ( and why should we ?) for the 'business model' of courses, and who believe that All Weather racing is a step backwards, the venue has made no progress down the years, with the Good Friday All Weather Champions Day being a day in the calendar to get racing out of the brain.

If only it was just the show jumping, Sunday markets, clay pigeons,Squash Courts, show jumping and dressage that had become reality. They have a gentle, considered feel about them that sits comfortable with those that once attended horse race meetings for the right reasons.

Somewhere down the line, starting as long ago as the 1980's , it all went wrong leaving many feeling that the ordeal of  attending many fixtures is not worth it.

A certain night fixture at Aintree, unbelievably now fifteen years ago, when the small core of genuine racegoers leaving before the final race found themselves walking into late arrivees who were fitted out for the Peter Andre concert and who would have been classed as racegoers for the statistical purposes. The pattern is repeated at fixtures up and down the country throughout the milder months.

And staying in the present, there can rarely have been a period in UK horse racing like the present for being made dizzy by innovations, plans, forecasts, and predictions made without any solid basis. The show now changes at a faster rate meaning that change occurs with less forethought and consideration.

Frighteningly, the daftest idea of all, and one which most racing fans who have a feel for the sport hoped would never come to fruition, is close to taking off -  if that's the right expression.

'City Racing' on 'pop up' courses, could be taking place as early as later this year. Anyone who cares for the future of the sport and believes that the only way to secure a new, long term audience is by learning about and respecting the sport's incredibly colourful history and how it is still important to the present, must hope and pray that the whole travelling circus is a disaster and that after one of the early fixtures, it's parts are packed away into a shed never to be seen again.

Hopefully, those who are investing in it and therefore just using the sport for their own planned gain with out any consideration for its long term health, will incur substantial losses and as a result show the sport more respect in future, preferably keeping their dabs of it all together.

A worrying aspect about the present state of the sport is that it is probably the only sport, that at certain fixtures, the course could get away with making an announcement informing all that , " there is a late change of schedule. We are unable to put on any horse racing, but rest assured, we have something better for you."

The step in sport would be motorbike racing with totalisator betting available. The riders, tanned with steriod assisted physiques , would introduce themselves pre-race to the crowd. Speaking into a microphone and letting out a few revs on their machines.

It would not go down well at a midweek jumping fixture at Wetherby or Kelso, but on certain days or evenings at the 'cult' tracks it would be accepted, the crowd made up mainly of inebriated woman accompanied by gangs of lads with no interest in racing.

 The culprit fixtures would include Chester on a balmy Friday Summer evening, Haydock on the Friday evening before the Old Newton Cup and Lancashire Oaks card, those new trashy fixtures they have put into the calendar at York; many others would be candidates.

There is no other sport in which you would even imagine such nonsense being accepted. Even the 20-20 cricket crowds do actually watch and immerse themselves in the game what is happening down on the pitch.

The prospect of 'City Racing' plus that other stupidly planned competition of a staggered midsummer team competition with teams having a manager and being award Grand Prix style points, is taking the focus off the more subtle changes in the calendar that need discussing.

A prime example would be the new races added to the former Sandown Whitbread programme in the foot and mouth season. Intended as a one off, they are still here and have an adverse affect on the longer standing fixtures.

Last season, the race formerly installed as a compensation opportunity for those who intended to line up for the 1999 Queen Mother Champion Chase, attracted Altior, taking him away from the Melling Chase , not to mention the strongly contested Champion Chase at Punchestown, that is run close to hand.

Wisely, Aintree have not given way to temptation to add an open two mile championship race to their main meeting. They let the Melling Chase sit alone, a carrot dangling some rich pickings for a Queen Mother winner taking a step in trip and have been rewarded with some terrific renewals down the years.

Hopefully they will be rewarded by having him take his place in this year's line up. If connections see the King George Chase as a target next season, then they can offer no excuse for a no showing.

In the grand scheme of things, it would be a happier place if this was high on the agenda of concerns. Unfortunately, with all the hullabaloo drawing closer and posing a real threat to the image of the sport, then such matters are trivial by comparison.
image - in public domain

THE OMENS ARE NOT GOOD

We are not through February yet already on the racing front there has been enough cheerless news to fit into a whole calendar year, invoking a gut feeling that there is more to come, in whatever shape and form it takes.

Recent events show that the BHA  cannot be taken for granted to handle Brexit related tinkering without making a balls up here and there, and on a separate note we also have to be prepared for the planned gimmicks picking up momentum which are set to be introduced in an ill judged attempt to freshen interest in the sport, along with anything else they may be throw into the ring.

The sudden decision to bring the sport to a standstill in the UK, made by people who knew no more about handling equine influenza and who were less in number than those who cast doubt on the wisdom of the verdict, was one which would not have been made a week before the Newmarket Guineas fixture.

You just wonder whether they were still in concealed panic mode after the decision, made evidently after a Godolphin spending review, to cease Darley sponsorship of the Yorkshire Oaks, a race in as healthy a state than its ever been, and one the sponsors had supported for thirty years.

There exists no precedent of the Maktoum family doing this in the UK. It has caught a few off balance and who knows whether this is to be the start of a cut down in interests here. And by pulling the plug on their Irish Oaks sponsorship, many with vested interests are undoubtedly worried.

There is a suspicion that the top priority for the BHA was to safeguard as much as possible against the risk of an epidemic running into the turf flat season. That would upset the people who have the power to damage the health of the sport by taking their custom elsewhere.

Unlike the parochial sport of National Hunt racing, which is only truly significant in Britain, Ireland and France, it's a big world out there in flat racing. The UK has increasing competition from nations, many far away, where the sport is better run, more appreciated, and more rewarding.

Many worldwide racing industries have always shown great respect, grudgingly or not, to the foundations of our Flat race structure, but you sense those in charge of our own programme care and respect our own roots much less.

Returning to our jam packed with garbage, top heavy on weekend for quality fixture list, the recent break from racing was a time to reflect, to pick up on events that can be missed with so much to keep tabs on, and a reminder of times gone when it all ran along at a gentler pace, with good quality fare spaced put more evenly, and when you would monitor the Gold Cup and Champion Chase markets unfolding without having to consider whether your fancy for any one of these races was a 'Ryanair horse'.

No wonder interest is waning with many long term fans.

I have a work colleague who likens what the administrators and stakeholders are doing to racing to what has occurred in his beloved sport of football. Up until this season, the only home league matches he had missed in the past forty odd years were either through holidays, weddings or funerals,.

He lives three miles from the stadium of the team he supports, who are famous worldwide. He however feels that his support is not appreciated and that the owners of the club would happily replace him with some far away based glory seeking fan.

"They don't care how much effort and money you have put into the club " he tells me. "It's now all about Jeremy from Surrey, Cecil from Woking, Michael from Dublin, Klaus from Stuttgart, Jan from Oslo, Blaine from Atlanta , and Ying Yang from Bangkok."

In fact he is so livid about the situation that despite his team flirting with returning to success at the very top level, he takes his seat at the match not really caring about the result.

At one recent match against another famous name team, he walked out at halftime when his team had gained control after an early reversal. For the past three matches he has sold his ticket back to the club at a loss calculated on what the price would be based on what he pays for his season ticket.

When the ticket is sold back there is space to cite the reason why you will not be attending, to which he writes, " I can't be bothered."

Bizarrely, as well as intending to retain his season ticket for next season, he is also in the verge of purchasing a season ticket for a thriving team in a rival city and will pick and choose his matches to attend, selling tickets back to the clubs for the matches he does not fancy.

His defence is that he now feels he is at the stage where he does not support any club at all, but likes to watch footy. He adds that no one can object to him attending matches at this other club because in similar vain outsiders have taken hold at his club.

There is one particular Forum for fans of his club that he has been on for over ten years, continually being banned for upsetting what he terms as the 'distantly challenged'. It appears the Forum does not now allow any new registrations. Whether it be just to stop him continually re-registering is anyone's guess.

He likens his situation to racing fans who feel the sport has been hijacked by commercial decisions to target the boozing crowds, who spend, watch concerts and drink and drink, with little  regard or respect for the sport. 

As with Haydock Park on Saturday, a venue that is now an accident in slow motion, we are now used to reading of these incidents this policy brings and have no faith in the doublespeak coming from the courses about not tolerating this and that.

So, should we turn on racing like my colleague has turned on his own club ? Should we be celebrate racing being halted when an epidemic spreads, should we shrug and mutter ''so what '', if a course closes down, or a long standing trainer hands in his licence, and do we digest the figures of falling attendances and a fall in racing's share of the betting pie and rub our hands with glee ?

No matter how cynical many of us have become in our attitude towards the sport, we are probably not at that stage just yet. However patience is wearing thin and if we reach the stage when we covet our weekly Golf, Footy or Cricket fixes more than our racing one, with their multitude of betting opportunities on cleaner sports , then we may wean ourselves off a sport that was once a full obsession.
image by Stephencdickson creative commons license

A DIVISION IN NEED OF AN OVERHAUL

For the sponsors, trainers, owners, and riders, it was a course of progression that was welcomed. More races, more opportunities, the rival to avoid now avoidable, more winners, and who cares about the dilution in quality or whether some of the races deserve to be at the Festival.

 It's now fourteen years since the decision was made to introduce the additional day at the Cheltenham Festival. For those of us looking in from the outside we search hard without finding any benefit that the additional day has brought in.

 Some in the industry, no doubt in a roundabout way pushing for an extra day and Saturday finish, ask what is the point of being at Cheltenham, then finishing the week off at Uttoxeter.

 This is a weak argument. You get over the Festival finishing for another year, then things calm down with a fairly attractive Uttoxeter card amid Cheltenham postmortem talk with the anticipation beginning on the run up to Aintree. Nothing needs to be put right with that sequence.

Putting aside the clear issue of dilution , many questioned the wisdom in giving the Stayers Hurdle an elevated spot of having its own day as the star billing, along with the unnecessary jazzed up name change to the World Hurdle.

While for others it was not a hard decision given the healthy state that sphere was in. In fact it would be no exaggeration to say that the 2003 running, when the charismatic Baracouda showed a gritty side to his character in beating Iris's Gift and Limestone Lad to retain his title , was looked forward to with more relish than any other renewal in the event's history, even more so than that year's Champion Hurdle .

It certainly lived up to expectations and we had more of the same one year later with Iris's Gift getting even when prevailing after a long fought duel.

The staying hurdle division was enjoying a golden period . It had never before carried so much kudos and once the idea of a fourth day became a reality, it was deemed acceptable at the time for the leading race in this division to be the centre-point of the new look Thursday.

 In fact, after its first staging on the new day, those who made the decision must have felt justified when Baracouda ran another fine race but could not contain the rising star Inglis Drever, who stamped himself as another worthy champion and would be part of the race for another few years until the outstanding Big Bucks (in picture) began his long reign.

 That all now feels longer ago than it really is as the shape of the staying hurdle division has now returned to normality. We are without any crowd pullers and no one can say with any amount of confidence that the division will return to those brief glory years anytime soon. Even if Faugheen made the line up he, as an eleven year old, is a different model to the animal that  dazzled in the Champion Hurdle four years ago.

While it may now be easy to say with hindsight, it should have been apparent that the new day was ideal to have a handicap taking the leading role.

This concept had not harmed other major meetings. Even when the York Ebor meeting had three days, the Wednesday showpiece was always the big handicap. And not just in the1970's. The leading role of the event held steady, even when the Group One Yorkshire Oaks was moved forward a day.

Likewise, Wednesday at Royal Ascot is Royal Hunt Cup day, this before and after many of the pattern races were upgraded to the highest status, same with the Stewards Cup on the various days it's been staged at Goodwood down the years, even including now despite the Group One Nassau sharing the same card.

Returning to the new day at Cheltenham, the race many mature fans still know as the Joe Coral Golden Hurdle Final (not to be confused with the later installed Coral Cup) would have been an ideal candidate for a massive money injection and to be recognised as the big one for the Thursday.

 Some may argue that a turbo boosted County Hurdle would be more appropriate, but problem being here is that the money injection would be likely to attract one or two that would otherwise be live outsiders for the Champion Hurdle, a race that can ill afford to take another knock.

 No, the right thing would be an event to attract many of the quality staying hurdlers, eating right into the very top level. Thus if a race were to suffer it would be the Stayers Hurdle itself, which would be an intentional and acceptable consequence of the initiative.

 The now named Pertemps Final has had some memorable renewals, none more so than when in 1983 the Jimmy Fitzgerald trained, future Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Forgive 'N Forget, landed a monstrous gamble to beat Michael Dickinson's Brunton Park, his market rival.

 Proper promotion going hand in hand with a fiercely promoted and hopefully fiercely bet on ante-post market, which is one aspect of the Festival that has faded with the introduction of the extra day and races having a muddied shape in the build up due to a wider choice of targets.

 The fourth day is still a move backwards for many purists but as it's here to stay then why not try a tried and trusted method of staging a handicap that stands out from the rest. And now, with no racing in the immediate future and who knows, a possible threat hanging over this year's Festival being staged, there is maybe some time to reflect and consider if changes need to made to what is still the greatest fixture of them all.

image taken by author