http://www.racingpost.com/news/hors...s-owner-threatens-to-close-course/906864/top/ Shame if this happens, I've not been yet but seems a popular venue.
I was very sceptical about the need for a new course when they built it, but they've clearly done an excellent job. Both the flat and NH courses seem to draw nothing but praise from jockeys and trainers, and South West Wales was probably the one place you could justify building the building the thing. It's inevitable tha a few courses will close given the diverse problems besetting the sport, but Ffos Las deserves to be some way down the list. Southwell, Worcester, Warwick, Redcar, Yarmouth, Folkestone and Brighton are a few tracks racing wouldn't really miss. So is Towcester, but it will probably survive due to a combination of imaginative management and idiosyncracy.
Ffos Las is also one of the few UK courses that offer a mixed card (as they did last week) and they at least seem to be trying to put a bit of thought and imagination into things. Whilst reducing fixtures is absolutely necessary there should be more thought put into it. Look at tomorrows racing in the UK - the end of August, the day after a bank holiday jam-packed with racing, is that really a day where we need 2 all-weather evening fixtures??
Sounds like a typical threat from someone who is desperate to keep his funds coming in at the current rate. It would be a shame for it to close, but I don't think its going to happen.
Yep, must admit that it sounds something of an ‘idle threat’ to me. Seems old boy Walters has had a ‘throwing his toys out of the pram’ moment. I also see that he’s threatening to sell of all his horses. The star amongst these ranks is, of course, Mr Henderson’s Oscar Whisky. Would get a mammoth price for this beast if he does choose this option.
I wish, Oddy. Don’t think he will sell (or close the racecourse come to that) but if he did surely Oscar Whisky would break the record price for a NH horse sold. Wouldn’t he???
I guess he's been gelded? No stud value then so longevity of career would be the only selling point. I think I'd rather buy Hurricane Fly. Does anyone know who George Creighton & Mrs Rose Boyd are?
Cyc I'm pretty sure Nass has the right horse in Garde Champetre, don't recall how much JP McManus paid for him though ...............
What Mr Waley-Cohen paid for Long Run wouldn’t have been far short of that Garde Champetre figure. Was a ’private transaction’ though so we can only guess the exact amount.
Found this but it may have been penned before Smith purchased Master Minded: "Smith, 59, is a racehorse owner for over twenty years. He set out to acquire a top class chaser in 2004 and his original target had been Garde Champetre. He bid some €560,000 for this horse but JP McManus topped Smith’s offer by €60,000 and in doing so, set a record for the most expensive National Hunt horse ever purchased. Through his bloodstock agent, Anthony Bromley (who is also responsible for the procurement of Binocular, Albertas Run and Celestial Halo), Smith parted with €400,000 for Kauto Star, following a recommendation from Paul Nicholls who saw clips of the horse running in Auteuil where he was a Grade 3 winner over hurdles."
