super saturday is okay for some.

​The only problem I can see with ‘Super Saturday’ is that it is a little bit too super. Would ‘Super Saturday’ fail if there were one less meeting? Would it, really? Why should eight-meetings be more ‘supery’ than seven? 
Why would Chester want to be part of the day rather than switch their meeting to the following Saturday when the day is as far from being super as can be imagined. Come on Chester, stop moaning about poor attendance and just move to the following Saturday. Small problem, easily solved.
That said, for premier racing to succeed it has to be seen to be fair to all, so for the B.H.A. to expect Chester to like it or lump it, to put up with having their attendance cut by half through being forced to begin racing at a start time that is neither late afternoon nor early evening, is unacceptable. Favouring Ascot, Newmarket and York is a poke in the eye to one of our countries best run racecourses, as iconic as anywhere in the world and a candidate for being one of the oldest racecourses in the world. Chester achieves a fine mix of modernity and old world charm and should be applauded and celebrated, not made to feel second-class.
The coming weekend is highlighted by a 2-year-old sales race at Newbury and a competitive summer jumping card at Market Rasen. Chester will fit nicely in the spot between the two.
The great win for Super Saturday is that it allows opportunities for riders to get on horses and to ride for trainers that would not normally come their way. For that reason, if no other, is why Super Saturday should be championed.
I always thought the Commonwealth Cup to be quite an innocent sort of race. It never crossed my mind it would generate controversy and become a source of such hot debate. Matt Chapman has never liked the race, believing it detracts from the 5-furlong all-aged sprint – is it still the Golden Jubilee? – it used to be the King’s Stand – and what is now the King Charles the 3rd Stakes, which used to be the Cork and Orrery – that’s what I dislike, changing the bloody names of races on a regular basis. Would King Charles care if whatever the race was called before he ascended to the throne was named after him or not? I would not think so, though as he now owns Ascot racecourse, he might have demanded his new title to be honoured just to let everyone know of his elevation to the very summit of British society.
Where was I? The Commonwealth Cup. Why not just appease everyone, and before the European Pattern Committee stick their noses in, and demote it to a Group 2 and wait for it to become a race so jammed-packed with quality there will be a roar from journalists to have it reverted to Group 1 status? It is just a dash up the straight, for pities sake, and has provided exciting finishes since its inception, which, if I recall correctly, was heralded with joy and satisfaction. I would like to bet if the Commonwealth Cup was given a life-span of another twenty-years, the record books would show that it has as many top-quality winners as any of the longer established Group I’s at Royal Ascot. I would suggest giving the race more time to develop or failing that, just quietly downgrade it to Group 2. No one during the race will notice any difference.
Soon to our t.v. screens will be the latest great white hope for improving the sport’s reputation ‘Champions: Full Gallop’, horse racing’s answer to all the other sporting docuseries that have achieved for the sports involved. I am not sure what they have achieved. I dipped in and out of the British Grand Prix the other Sunday and found it as boring as a drunken wake. Unless it pours with rain, Formula 1 is just cars at spedd circulating in random formation, rather like watching cctv footage of the M.1.. The mystery of tiddlywinks would be more compelling viewing.
So let us hope that Nico de Boinville and Nicky Henderson et al intrigue the viewers to the point where a good majority of them go to bed saying it might be fun to go racing one day. Let us all cross our fingers while falling to our knees in prayer. Perhaps, our salvation, at last!