From Racing Post: "CHELTENHAM insists it is unconcerned by the presence of a large group of travellers who set up camp on racecourse land on Wednesday evening, with Jockey Club Racecourses having begun legal proceedings to remove the group from the premises. Despite attempts from racecourse staff to prevent their entry, the travellers are refusing to move. The group set up on land used regularly as a car park including for their first race meeting of the season on October 21. Police were called to the premises on Wednesday morning. Sophia Dale, communications manager for the south west region at Jockey Club Racecourses, said: "We are not worried by their presence. The necessary legal action is being taken against them and the police are aware. However, it is not a police issue and is a matter for the racecourse to deal with. They are refusing to leave but in our experience they should be gone within five working days." This is not the first time that travellers have made their way onto racecourse grounds. Earlier this summer what is believed to be a different group was removed from the racecourse within five working days following legal action." I immediately think of the Brad Pitt character from Snatch
Have to agree with this lads - keep the boxing to the one thread please, no need to put up a separate thread for a single fight. I will merge it into the boxing thread.
Smullen even getting dodge pots over the line with his riding. Another corker. I've not backed 1 runner from the Weld barn all week Dermot has spotted a weakness in the market and boy are they exploiting it.
I'll fight ya for it bass (boss) That's what they will be saying to the land owners at HQ! Cheltenham open meeting, Ocean Colour Scene play after the racing and bare knuckle boxing throughout the day. Tickets £25.50.
I love Chappers. Thank God he's making the leap. I need to be entertained when i'm watching racing especially because so much of it does not warrant TV coverage in any way shape or form. Bad Class 4 handicaps on a Saturday at Chester does not make great TV. It's his interaction with trainers, jockeys and owners that makes that bearable.
Everyone has digital tv nowadays in the UK so what does it matter if it's on ITV1 or 4. I think racing is very lucky to have had the amount of coverage it's enjoyed for so long on the big 4 channels. Low viewing figures and a generally marginal sport that only piques interest of the masses at Cheltenham in March, Aintree (for one race) in April and maybe Derby day. The rest doesn't touch the sides for the vast majority of people in the UK. I think the Sunday forum is at its finest when Chappers and Down are on together.
No surprise that my friend’s horse Orithia was withdrawn after the deluge that hit Newbury. Surprisingly, she is also engaged at Kempton on Monday in the 2:10. A strange choice of race because (a) it is over five furlongs, (b) it is on the polytrack; and (c) the going is described as “standard to slow”, which does not indicate the quick ground that they were looking for is very likely. Unless Newmarket stays Good or better, this weekend looks like a no bet with Newbury on the wrong side of Good as well as (predictably) Ayr.
You missed out Royal Ascot – I know... they only watch that for the fashion but that is why most of them are at the track: social networking and to flaunt their wealth through their wardrobe. Racing still enjoys coverage on terrestrial TV because it is one of the few sports that they can afford. They cannot compete with Sky or BT Sport for the football or the rugby. Horse racing is always going to attract low viewing figures because on a Saturday many potential viewers are going to be at the races or at the football/rugby.
Qm, why is the going dependent on your betting perspective when different horses go on different ground?
My friend and the rest of the syndicate were told that the horse did not want the ground soft, so the trainer told them if it rained too much he would take it out of the race. Myself I do not bet when the going is soft because the form book goes out of the window with the quick horses getting stuck in the mud. Over half a lifetime of betting, I have noticed that I always lose when the ground is soft so the obvious solution is do not bet.
On the flat when it is soft one week and it has been quick the previous month, there is no soft ground form. I will not back some plodder that won last October on heavy ground, but has dropped to a ten pound lower mark running nowhere on quick ground because I only bet on recent form that a horse can be relied upon to reproduce now. I can understand your point about betting on National Hunt racing – during the winter months, the ground should mostly be consistently soft so the form should be reliable from one week to the next. The problem is that I discovered quite young that most of the trainers are crooked. I knew a couple of old boys that owned a couple of horses that were no world beaters. The trainers would basically school them in public, hacking round in midfield with no chance to win (like half of them still do despite the supposed non-triers rules), but then when they had the right handicap mark and entered in the right sort of race they would be trying. The old boys regularly got tips for the other horses in their trainers’ yards but they frequently were not ‘win’ tips but “this will definitely be placed” (even though it was 20/1 or 25/1) and they were quite often profitable each-way bets. The prize money was rubbish so fiddling was the only way to make it pay. Nowadays the only time I bet on NH is if I am sat at home in front of the box during the Cheltenham Festival (burning holiday days) when I will have a few quid on some of the Championship races (where they will all be trying!) for an interest. I would not touch any of the handicaps at Cheltenham as most of the crooks have been fiddling their horses all season to get the right handicap mark so the form is absolutely worthless, which is why there are usually so many bookie-priced winners. From a competitive point of view the problem with NH is that most of the big names avoid each other until March by cherry-picking the big Saturday pots but that is a problem that NH racing created itself. If we have a wet spring next year, I will probably pack in betting on flat racing because we have had three or four wet summers on the trot and I am quite happy to watch the sport without having a bet. My friends are frequently incredulous when I have been to the races and they ask if I won and I say I never had a bet, to which I retort that they go to the football on a Saturday without having done a pools coupon. They see horseracing solely as a betting medium, not a sport, so when I go to the races with any of them they spend most of the afternoon going between the bar and the bookmakers.
Not at all. Under both codes the stewards only give lip service to the rule. The jockey has to make it really obvious that he is taking a pull to get done. It must be much easier to give your horse an easy time in a two-and-a-half mile chase than a six furlong sprint. Under both codes the easiest way to fiddle a horse is to run it on the wrong ground (if your horse has a preference) or over the wrong distance. On the flat, I regularly look at handicaps and see horses running in mile races that have only ever won over five and six furlongs – they know the horse is going to go out like a light in the last two furlongs and the handicapper will drop them a couple of pounds. The jockey can ride the horse so it is not classed a non trier even though it has no chance. It is one of the quick ways that I use to narrow down the runners in any race where I am thinking of having a bet.
