THE MIXED BLESSING THAT IS EVENING RACING.

​Evening racing is a mixed blessing, I tend to think. For the racegoers, especially I think the casual racegoer, no sporting event quite compares with an evening’s racing situated close to a river. Worcester, I have always found, to be as pleasant a way to spend an evening as any sporting pursuit of my experience. Windsor, too, is a place to visit before you die, I am told.
There is a different atmosphere to an evening meeting. An afternoon meeting during the summer can become a bit of trial if the racecourse is crowded and the temperature hot and the air still. Whereas during the day the heat rises through the afternoon, in the evening the reverse is true and it is always worth taking, even if it is an encumbrance to begin with, a jacket or cardigan to hide goose-bumps. And although the races are as evenly spread throughout the meeting as the afternoon, there seems an easier pace to proceedings as dusk beckons, as if the horses and jockeys are provided as arms-reach entertainment while you drink with your mates or to still the kids for a few minutes. The racecourse is a green lung in an urban landscape, a park with a beer garden and a kid’s area. Every evening meeting should be a family fun day.
Surprisingly – at least it was a surprise to me as I thought it a more recent development – the first evening meeting in this country was held in 1947, at Hamilton, on 18th July. It is a date Hamilton should commemorate in some way. The clerk of the course, W.H.Robertson-Aikman was a smart fellow as July 18th was the first day of the Glasgow Fair Holiday and 18,000 people attended. If only such crowds regularly supported a day’s racing now. At Hamilton or anywhere.
I remember reading that York held a night meeting in the late 1700’s, with the later races run in the dark. One can only imagine what shenanigans the jockeys got up to in darkness considering what they could get away with in daylight. The fifth race was apparently run in the fastest time of the day, which suggests the starter couldn’t see what was going on and one horse got a flyer – remember back in the day races were started by flag as the barrier was not invented till the mid eighteen-hundreds.
The problem with evening racing is the toll it takes on those whose jobs depend on providing the sport, especially the grooms who will have doubtless have risen from their beds before the crack of dawn, will have mucked out, perhaps ridden one or two lots, before readying their horses for the drive to whichever racecourse they are racing at. And against Employment Law, I suspect, they will be expected to report for duty at a similar time the following day.
Jockeys seem to see evening racing as an opportunity to boost their income by riding at two meetings in a day. Personally, I think this is regrettable and perhaps another breach of Employment Law. Yes, jockeys are self-employed and undertake the double shift willingly and it can be argued that to prevent them from riding at two meetings would be a restriction on their right to ply their trade as they feel fit. But should they be encouraged to endure such long working days for days and months on end? A lorry-driver is restricted to a set number of hours behind the steering wheel before he or she must take a break, and it again can be argued that jockeys can share long journeys, allowing them to take turns to sleep during the journey.
Of course, jockeys are restricted, I believe, to riding at two meetings in a day four times a week, which is sensible, though no restriction is placed on mileage, with no attention paid to where the jockey lives. It is not unusual for a jockey who lives in Newmarket to ride at Leicester in the afternoon before going to Haydock or Carlisle for an evening meeting, perhaps only having one ride at either meeting. The return journey will be from the North-East of the country to East Anglia, a tedious journey on any account.
As someone who for more years than I care to remember has advocated journeyman jockeys being given opportunities to put some jam on the table – they too will have a wife, family and mortgage to support – perhaps restricting the occasional evening meeting to the lesser lights of the weighing room would put extra money in their pockets and give their betters, whether they would welcome it or not, an evening at home with their feet up. If this was achieved only once a week the time-rich will receive a boost in salary and the money-rich will have rest forced upon them. Win-win, I would have thought.
It always seems to me a bit greedy of the top flat jockeys to be dashing off after Royal Ascot or Glorious Goodwood, for example, to ride at an evening meeting, even if they do so to honour the fat retainer they are paid. But isn’t that what second-jockeys are paid for, to ride the lesser horses so the top man can concentrate on the better horses?
Everyone seems to agree that there is too much racing in this country. The easiest way of reducing the calendar overload would be to cut down the number of evening meetings. Have a free evening once a week, as well as Sundays. Or alternate between jumps and flat during high summer or a Northern meeting one day and Southern meeting the next. Less is more, as the saying goes. The tail shouldn’t be wagging the dog.