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
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