Sunday's Meetings Uttoxeter N/H 7 Races 1:30-4:40p.m. Curragh Flat 8 Races 1:40-5:25p.m. Windsor Flat 7 Races 1:45-4:55p.m. Cartmel N/H 7 Races 1:50-5:00p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
First at windsor Applaud now gets an interesting booking in Buick and 7/2 looks very good . The outsider winnaker looks good value ew at 16s . The win on Apaud now for me though
Carried over a bit from yesterday’s thread regarding field sizes, group races and prize money, the Curragh card is a classic example today: 2.10 Arlie Stud stakes Group 2 - first prize €72K. 7 runners with an odds-on Balldoyle runner. Competitiveness rating 1/5 3.45 Pretty Polly Stakes Group 1 - first prize €180K. 9 runners rated between 100 and 115. A little more competitive but a shocking standard for an all-age group 1. The two „premier handicaps“ on the card have first place prize money of €60K and €30K respectively with 18 runners in the 5F event and 15 in the 1m 4f event. You could easily take 30%-40% of the group race prize money and make those 2 handicaps much more valuable by doubling the prize money.
I know that I should disagree to simulate a discussion but I do agree with much of what you say. Much of it is specific to Ireland, or more accurately to the domination of Ballydoyle. Over the last couple of decades, Aidan O’Brien’s domination of Irish racing has made it uncompetitive, so the quality of horse has fallen. Look at the Irish Derby – 13 of the last 23 winners came from Ballydoyle. If you breed a horse in Ireland, have it trained overseas. This forces the other trainers, therefore, to target what might be perceived as lesser races, which has driven the prize money up as they become more competitive.
