matt chapman defeats premierisation with one short statement of fact.

​“It’s what I.T.V. racing has been doing all these years.” Matt Chapman said yesterday. He is correct. On a Saturday, I.T.V. highlights all that’s best in the day’s racing. In effect I.T.V. has been running a 4-year experiment to understand if highlighting the days’ best racing in a 2-hour golden slot will improve audience or racecourse attendance and though not a failure as sofa-attendance has increased to a degree, racecourse attendance remains in the doldrums and betting turnover, the main vector the B.H.A. wishes to see expand, is only going south due to outside forces.
When Kevin Blake quite rightly suggests it is the race programme that next requires attention, he is pointing the finger at the lower end of the sport. And Matt Chapman is right yet again when he says what is the point of shedding fixtures if racecourses then stage eight, nine or ten races per meeting. Reducing the fixture list and not allowing anymore than seven-races per meeting is the quickest route to improving competitiveness on a daily basis.
What no one seems all that bothered about is the increasing number of Group and listed races that only attract three and four-runner fields. Six were due to take part in the Group 2 at Newmarket yesterday and with two withdrawn due to the ground, only four fairly ordinary horses went to post. Non-competitive Group races should be excised and converted into limited handicaps.
There seems a belief that good quality horse racing is solely limited to Group races. Yet isn’t a blanket finish to a Grade 5 handicap exciting to watch for punters and viewers? Experts may get over-excited by a wide-margin win by a two-year-old at Newmarket, for example, but was it as eye-grabbing for the first-time viewer as a blanket-finish to a Grade 5 handicap? Which is more likely to attract viewers back to Formula 1, Max Verstappen starting on pole, lapping most of his opponents and winning by 30-seconds or a lap after lap tussle between two or three drivers with the final result unpredictable till the chequered flag is reached?
Group races have to be competitive as well as Monday-fare. The European Pattern Committee may have a hissy-fit at the suggestion but the number of Group 2’s and 3’s around the continent must be reduced to increase both competitiveness and prize-money.
I am beginning to believe that the sport could do worse than to invite Matt Chapman to run British horse-racing for a limited amount of time.

City of Troy looked special in the Dewhurst but please do not get carried away with the superlatives until he has won a classic. Remember all the other ‘jet-engined’ superstars from Ballydoyle, and elsewhere, that were given markedly high ratings going into winter and then bombed-out as three-year-olds? Also, do we really know the strength of the opposition in the Dewhurst or if they will improve ten-lengths when raced again on firmer conditions? Frankel was not an expression of greatness until he won the 2,000 Guineas – against poor-quality opposition – and beyond. City of Troy looks exceptional but he also might have reached his peak and that others, perhaps stabled at Ballydoyle, might improve with racing next season. Keep the superlatives bottled until next spring or summer.

On This Day: and to prove the validity of my argument above.
In 1982 Gorytus trailed home last of 4 at 1-2 favourite in the Dewhurst. He, too, was touted to be the next superstar of the sport.
In 1990 Lester Piggott had his first comeback ride since his retirement 5-years earlier, finishing second in a photo-finish. At the same meeting, Walter Swinburn rode 5-winners.