I would've thought that after last year's Dewhurst, where the Middle Park winner Dream Ahead turned up to take on Frankel, that the Racing For Change idiots might have had a rethink about proposing to run the Dewhurst and Middle Park on the same day but obviously they haven't. The same goes for the QEII and Champion Stakes being run on the same day. Last year's QEII winner Poet's Voice ended up running in the Champion Stakes the following month. The idiocy of these people is beyond belief.
The schedule for the 2yo races at Newmarket is: 24/09/2011 - The Royal Lodge, The Fillies Mile, The Cheveley Park, The Oh So Sharp & The Somerville Stakes (also running Joel Stakes, The Sun Chariot & The Cambridgeshire) 07/10/2011 - The Cornwallis, The Middle Park, The Dewhurst, The Rockfel, The Autumn Stakes (also running Richard Hambro Stakes, The Challenge Stakes & The Cesarewitch)
They are going to have a serious problem trying to make the Ascot Champions Day all Group 1 races because of the way that the European Pattern works. They cannot just create new Group 1 races; they will have to remove Group 1 statuses from somewhere else in the calendar. Clearly their objective is to come up with a day comparable to Arc Sunday but they are doing it at the wrong time of the year and the French can veto any proposed changes. My expectation is that Newmarket will lose out as the Cesarewitch plus a bunch of two-year-old races does not make a varied enough card that I am going to make the 340-mile round trip. Newmarket is also losing out because nobody can do the Middle Park/Dewhurst double anymore and their Middle Park fixture has been sacrificed. It is ironic that Arc Sunday is sponsored by Qatar through until 2022 and the British Champions Series is sponsored by a Qatari investment company called QIPCO. They love buying up their sports, don’t they.
the 2 year old day really is unbelievable. I think what really annoys me about the changes is that anyone interested in racing is totally against them, and anyone not interested wouldn't be bothered whether there were changes made or not. so the question has to be - what's the point?
Steveo77, the first time racegoers that they are trying to attract are mostly going to be coming for a fun day out; a social event with their friends, a couple of drinks and a bet. In September and October the football season has started, which makes grabbing a slice of the Saturday market very difficult unless they are after hen parties. There does not appear to be any logic to the way that the two-year-old races have been rearranged for Newmarket. They have put the one mile races (Royal Lodge, Fillies Mile) on the Cambridgeshire card and the seven furlong races (Dewhurst, Rockfel) on the Cesarewitch card. If they swapped the Middle Park with the Fillies Mile they could have the two big six furlong races (Cheveley Park and Middle Park) on one card in September. Does it not make more sense to have the longer two-year-old races later in the season when the late maturing types have developed? Princess, come around to mine. I’ll try it on – and the tea cosy!
