premierisation of saturday race-meetings.

​I should be wholly opposed to the concept of the ‘Premierisation of Horse Racing’. It is an idea with a hole in it, dear Liza and eventually dear Henry will have to shift his lazy ass and fix the problem. I have no confidence in the B.H.A. to come to the right decision as they botch everything their hand touches and now they have the teeth to implement ideas off their own bat – if they ever have ideas of their own, that is – heaven only knows what a mess they will create. 
I should be opposed to ‘premierisation’ of the sport if only because no one in racing is on a par with Shakespeare (he was the Earl of Oxford, if you want the truth) and they should not be inventing words to give the appearance of brilliance when all they are doing is re-creating the wheel. Long ago, in the distant past, when the world was as yet uncorrupted by politics and Big Pharma, when Clive Graham sat on a chair in a booth educating the viewer with the form of each runner as it circulated the parade ring, adding anecdotes about the owner, jockey or trainer (not the servant leading the horse around, of course, as in the distant past servants were never spoken about). No fashion parade back then and certainly no waffle. Saturday was the special day, with no more than four-meetings scheduled, with only one televised. It was clarity back then in the days of black and white and the great Peter O’Sullevan’s muddled commentaries. No Super Saturdays. No clutter back in the day when all the national newspapers had dedicated racing journalists and all the race-cards were in the back pages of the paper. The good old days, if only we knew it.
Why people of influence in horse racing must constantly look at other sports with envious eyes defeats me. The total boll-acks of the way flat racing determines its champion jockey is Grand Prix related. Bernie Eccleston had a brief flirtation with horse racing, owning or part owning a few horses and he declared in his wisdom that horse racing would be less confusing and easier for the public to engage with if only a certain number of races determined the champion jockey each year. The champion jockey not necessarily riding the most winners throughout the entire season is so less confusing than the winning-most jockey declared the winner. I think Bernie’s idea was that the jockey who won the most Group 1’s should be declared champion. And why not. After all, Manchester City will be champion of the premiership this season based on points gained in certain matches, not due to wins and draws gained in cup competitions.
My point is that horse racing and football, or indeed motor sport, have little in common. Horse racing is a seven-day a-week life. Horse racing has numerous facets that inter-dwell, inter weave, go hand-in-hand. Promotions are not gained through points accrued. In our sport, in theory, anyway, it is less so nowadays than when Grandstand and World of Sport were in opposition, a minnow can win the highest prizes.
Handled correctly, premierising the top meetings has great potential to achieve what its supporters believe it can. To my mind, though, the danger is that the baby will be thrown out with the bathwater. I believe we should not be concentrating on Saturdays alone but including the Sunday as well. The weekend should be the jewel, not just the Saturday. Instead of demoting Musselburgh, Chester, York or Beverley to an undercard, the financial backwater of a 10.30 am or 4.30 pm start, give them the limelight of the Sunday and improve the standard of Sunday racing, long decried as an opportunity missed. The much-heralded ‘Sunday Series’ has improved prize money but it has done little to improve the quality of the horses on display. Premierising both the Saturday and the Sunday is the way forward.
Yes, I know. Ireland and France have their top races on a Sunday and the top English-based jockeys will be compromised, asked to choose between abroad and home. That, on occasion, will be the truth. Rarely will it occur, though, I believe. Ryan Moore and William Buick rarely strut their stuff at Musselburgh and Beverley. They will continue to fly to the Curragh and Longchamp and other jockeys will benefit from their absence.
My original horror at the suggestion of favouring (a nicer word than premierisation, don’t you think?) the top race-meetings on a Saturday over the smaller, country courses, has migrated to ‘unease’. It has potential. It will not in itself solve the issues the sport faces now and will in the future. In fact, if the B.H.A. do not prioritise the future of the smaller racecourses in tandem with favouring Ascot, Cheltenham, Newmarket, etc, the sport could easily get to the stage of being imperilled in double-quick time.
The horse racing bucket has a hole in it, dear Liza and it will take more than a straw to fix it. As amusing as the song is (‘There is a Hole in the Bucket’ by Harry Belafonte, if you are too young to know what I am referring to) it must be remembered that Henry was a lazy so-and-so and Liza an ineffectual employer who thought make-do and mend was a better option than buying a new bucket. The allegory being – premierisation might be the straw recommended by Liza to mend the bucket.