is the flat racing calendar beyond repair?

​As it is doubtful that anyone trawls the archive of this site, it allows me to recover old ground occasionally, and I do so again here.
I used to enjoy the flat as much as I continue to do National Hunt. Over the years, though, the flat has taken on, for me if nobody else, a persona of predictability, with the large multi-national breeding operations dominating the major races and standing on the throat of romance. I do not deny that Coolmore, Godolphin, Juddmonte and others bring great benefit to the sport through employment and sponsorship, and occasionally, as with the Irish 2,000 Guineas this weekend, a smaller operation can succeed. And there is legitimacy in the argument that in recent years National Hunt has also become dominated by the mighty few. But I conjecture that the flat has become just that, flat.
My big gripe with flat racing is with the racing calendar, with only marginally second in gripiness how the various championships are delivered. A system that leaves out the first month and last few weeks of a season when calculating the champion jockey, and with the jockey who rides the most winners in either the entire flat season or the calendar year not being declared champion, is absurd; a plan to suit a convenience.
But to return to the racing calendar. If I had my way the season would start the week after the Grand National and would start not with a whimper but a bang! I would return the Lincoln, very much in the way the Grand National remains recognisable to the Grand National of history, to a barrier start and a field size of 40. I know this is a radical suggestion and will no doubt frighten jockeys and bewilder health and safety experts but it would elevate the Lincoln from an ordinary mile handicap to what it used to be, a race of distinction, a race to anticipate.
If the Guineas and the Epsom classics cannot be moved from their early season slots to later in the season, I would elevate the Eclipse from a Group I to a classic, allowing for a ‘classic season’ that will allow both Guineas horses and Derby and Oaks horses to complete for the Triple Crown. In my eyes this makes perfect sense. Mile races in April, mile and a half races in late May/early June and back to a mile and 2-furlongs in July.
What about the St.Leger, I hear you cry! I would make the St.Leger the most valuable prize in Britain, run over the present distance but open to three-year-olds and upwards, and forming the third leg of an older horses middle-distance triple crown – the Coronation Cup, King George and Queen Elisabeth, St.Leger. In fact, I would implement Triple Crowns for stayers, sprinters, milers and mile-and-a-quarter horses as an incentive for owners to keep horses in training beyond their three and four-year-old careers.
I will admit I am not won over by ‘Champions Day’ as no equine champions are crowned. It is very much a day of consolations races for horses who do not have Arc or Breeders Cup aspirations and who have hit the bar throughout the season. If the ‘Triple Crown’ idea were given the green light, a big ‘if, of course, ‘Champions Day’ could host the final triple crown races for stayers, sprinters and milers. I would return the Champion Stakes to Newmarket where it would be the final race for the mile-and-a-quarter Triple Crown.
I would scrap all listed races. Fillies and mares should earn ‘black type’ in handicaps, if unable to do so in Group races. Finishing third in a Salisbury listed race is buying listed status on the cheap and doesn’t make a filly a better breeding prospect than one who has won top-quality handicaps. Listed races are not there for the racing aspect but as a sop for breeders. In fact, too much of the flat programme is designed with breeders in mind.
There should be no one-million-pound handicaps. Races with the pedigree of the Ebor and Cesarewitch should be open to all and not the mighty stables that can afford to keep a horse back solely to have it in front of the handicapper come the big day.
The flat is increasingly lacking in romance, as it is, which is why when syndicates get lucky it is more of newsworthy than when Coolmore or Godolphin are triumphant, which come the big races is most of the time.
And what the flat is desperately in need of, as Bryony Frost has proved over jumps, is a female jockey riding at the top echelon of the sport. While there are female jockeys doing well at the moment, the glass ceiling remains intact, with little likelihood of it being broken any time soon. Though it would not solve the dilemma, I am a strong advocate of a six-figure stakes race confined to professional female riders run at one of the main racecourses, with a series of top-quality handicaps, also restricted to female professional jockeys, throughout the season. If females do not get on good horses in important races how will we ever know if they can compete on level terms with the men?
To my mind, the whole race calendar needs to be overhauled, with the flat and all-weather treated as two different variations of the sport. During the summer months, there should be no flat racing one Sunday in every month to allow jockeys time with their families and occasionally whole meetings restricted to jockeys (the journeyman jockeys) who have ridden a limited number of winners in a set period.
If I ruled the flat, the flat would be a different country. I’m not boasting that it would have more highs and greater dollops of romance, but it would be fairer, champions, equine and human, would be crowned through winning ‘triple crown’ races and by winning the most races in a full season.