newbury on a friday & saturday. Please Never again!

​I fancy Midnight River for the Coral Gold Cup.
I doubt if he will win give the Skeltons victory for a second consecutive year, though, as the odds on the meeting going ahead are as long as me finishing a marathon in daylight. I have argued the case for years, with no one else, seemingly, wishing to engage in the debate. So, it was good to hear Ed Chamberlain try to start a chat at Newbury yesterday on the rank stupidity of racing on the Friday and putting in jeopardy the running of the most important staying handicap chase outside of the Grand National in this country the following day.
Friday, you see, is ‘corporate day’ and racecourse executives believe it is more important than the prestige races they are blessed to host. Why Sunday cannot become ‘corporate day’ is beyond me, though I dare say Newbury and others have good reason to play stick in the mud on this issue.
Yes, I know, with the unaltering arbitrary nature of the British weather, it is as likely for inclement weather to cause the abandonment of a race-meeting on any day of the week. My counter to this sensible statement is this: if, for example, the Newbury fixture slated this year and every year for a Friday and Saturday were rearranged to a Saturday and Sunday fixture, with the Coral Gold Cup the feature on the first day, it would give Newbury wriggle-room if frost, snow or the wrath of God stopped the meeting going ahead on the Saturday, with Sunday free for the race to be instantly rearranged. It is called a safety-net, something that a Friday/Saturday fixture cannot have. This issue, in wintertime, at least, has the potential to run a horse and carriage through the B.H.A.’s golden plan for the survival of the sport that is called ‘premierisation’. The ‘safety-net’ to betting turn-over that is all-weather flat racing is nothing more than a bedsheet pulled tight in comparison to the betting revenue that comes from a competitive handicap like the Coral Gold Trophy or a day’s racing from Cheltenham.
With finances in racing as they are at the moment, with attendance at racecourses suffering due to the manufactured cost-of-living crisis, it would make sense, at least to me or anyone having to cope with rising household bills etc, to have fewer two-day major meetings through the winter months and to think about Saturday mega-days. Yes, this one-day would be subject to whims of nature, but I would contend, if the meeting was called-off on the Saturday, that, if the racecourse was raceable on the Sunday, that the meeting could be transferred to the following day, with or without t.v. coverage.
With the money saved from staging a two-day meeting, the Coral Gold Cup could become the centre-piece of a mega-Saturday, especially as the Fighting Fifth and Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle are annually run on the same day.
Losing the former Hennessey, with its historic place in National Hunt history, would be a major loss to trainers, owners and jockeys. And to punters, bookmakers and to racing’s finances. Everything should be in place to give important and historic races every chance possible to be staged on their slated day in the calendar and at the moment this stupid ‘actually we can’t race on the Saturday and the Sunday as Friday is our corporate day’ attitude is helping to beleaguer further our already over-burdened sport. Ireland would simply rearrange the whole meeting for the following week, just to ensure the races get run. The whole meeting, mind you, with no cherry-picking of the better-quality races.
This issue gets my blood-up as it seems that neither Newbury nor the B.H.A. think Coral Gold Cup Day is worth every effort to stage.
One more thing that boils my blood: The Gerry Feilden Hurdle is this year named ‘the Now Bet In Race with Coral Intermediate Handicap Hurdle’. Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Not! I get it, Coral sponsor the meeting. The Coral name will decorate the racecourse at every spot where a t.v. camera will show them to the television audience. But why can’t this notable race simply be titled the ‘Coral Gerry Fielden Hurdle’? Doesn’t everyone in racing already know that it is possible to bet in race by now? Perhaps Coral need to add ‘on your mobile device’ to the title so that even complete idiots like me fully understand the meaning behind the title.
A beautiful sport, with the most magnificent animal species on the planet, made as desperate-looking and ugly as Edvard Munch’s ‘ The Scream’ by men in dull-coloured suits in want of netting custom. Wouldn’t the ‘Gerry Fielden Hurdle’ HOSTED BY CORALS be less distracting, more sensitive?
‘CORPORATE’ – imagine an old man shaking his head, a look of sadness purveyed throughout his face and body – and you will know how this piece of diatribe ends.