After some over eager false dawns, horse racing in the UK is in the countdown process to a restart that promises to offer an abridged first two months of the season squashed into a couple of weeks.
Moreover the month of June will see a wider European Pattern programme delivered in a strange order, almost as if it has been determined from being on 'shuffle play', which will continue into July, with one of the oddities of it all being Royal Ascot sitting in its normal slot amid this fixture chaos.
Long term racing fans undoubtedly appreciate the long established order of the fixture list and this off sync presentation feels uncomfortable even, as is hoped, it will only be a one off.
Sadly though, almost all of those representing the emerging generations would not care less about race planning or whether the order is coming from a list put on 'shuffle play', being the sorts who prefer their music in this disordered, untintended mode.
They will have no respect for the planning of order in which tracks were intended to be played when those albums from the great rock bands were produced in the late 1960's and 1970's, with a strong first track similar to an opening chapter in a book that gains the attention.
A Pattern programme does not necessarily need a big opener to the season but showcase meetings need a gripping opening event such as the Supreme Novices and Queen Anne.
Some of these characters who have their music on 'shuffle play' would not see any problem if the Cheltenham Festival opened with the conditional jockey's hurdle event, or Royal Ascot with the Queen Alexandra. But they are inheriting the world and are the category of audience that many racecourse's have been courting with their business model dependant on attracting the cult summer crowds to make their operations a success.
Mouthpieces make statements insisting that modern racegoers like to have an extra added on to the racing when they make a racecourse visit, this of course to justify these trashy concert meetings. They make no distinction between a racing fan and the racegoers that frequent the modern weekend meetings, in particular the summer gatherings that are now simply too much of an ordeal for many of us.
Well, those that pull the strings at these courses that have embraced the trash angle are going to have to place their thinking caps on as this modus operandi which they apply is not only redundant for the rest of 2020, but if, as is possible, no effective Covid 19 vaccine is found with the result that we have regular waves which we will have to permanently live around, then they are going to find themselves in a quandary.
Take Chester as a prime example. This course that once emanated a delightfully quaint atmosphere, with a protected programme, has turned itself into ritzy shambles with fixtures coming out of the ears so plentiful they now are.
Frank, Harry and Ernest, carrying their scribbled on Sporting Life's and Chronicle's, or the Daily Express racing pages with O'Sullivan and Benson writing, or the Daily Mirror with Bob Butcher's analysis, are not this sort of racecourse's bread and butter anymore - they won't even be welcome in Tatts unless they meet dress code requirements.
Instead, this is a course that will be desperately examining all the options for finding a way to accomodate the hordes of cult attendees that have provided them with rich rewards for some time now. They will soon realise that this income stream has run dry.
A quick appraisal of a Chester raceday discovers almost everything that simply does not fit into a world with no choice but to live with Covid 19.
Right from the moment the throngs depart the trains at the main station, pack the bus ride to the city centre, make the way down to the course on densely populated pavements, stopping off on the way at one of the many heaving public houses with Tudor style facades. This will not be happening again anytime soon.
It is likely that the racecourse, with help from the local council, may seek the creation of a designated walking route from the station to the city centre, then down to the course. The route will be monitored by Police and stewards to ensure social distancing rules are adhered to.
All advertisements for the venue would have carried a recommendation that attendees arrive early at the course as the admittance process would be lengthy, most unlike what they had previously been familiar with.
It would be fascinating to see how this scene, from which there is no alternative, would play out in reality. A group of twenty and thirty somethings, some with partners, finding they are unable to have a drink in the city centre before racing, having then to qeue socially distanced, have their pockets and bags searched by masked, bolshy halfwits, then after finally gaining access to the course after the first race has been run, find there are ridiculous queues waiting to gain access to makeshift, outdoor seated areas where drink or food can be ordered.
If they somehow possess the temperament for this, they'll then have to be subject to further protocol when visiting the Gents or Ladies. Then, after a thoroughly stressful day, they will be able to look forward to a strictly marshalled, socially distanced walk all the way back to the station.
Bearing in mind that none of these attendees will have too much genuine interest in the racing and that in between visits to a racetrack would not have a bet on horse racing, are they really going to bother coming again?
While this all may sound far fetched, those who are familiar with this track, its
location, along with the surrounding streets, will be well aware that if Covid 19 is here to stay indefinitely, then it is a scenario that will play out if Chester racecourse desire to hold race meetings again with an attending audience.
And for those of us dismayed at the direction this venue has chosen to take over the past twenty years, we may just partake in a jolly Dickensian belly laugh.
image taken by author
No comments:
Post a Comment