Ascot going
- Thread starter Pilgrim
- Start date
-
Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
-
If this rain continues I can’t see any racing at ascot this weekend.
Funny enough most of the NH tracks have goodish going at the moment (Wincanton even good-firm in places) 
No way, I can’t believe that. It’s been pissing down for two weeks. Even worse in the West Country.Funny enough most of the NH tracks have goodish going at the moment (Wincanton even good-firm in places)
Funny enough most of the NH tracks have goodish going at the moment (Wincanton even good-firm in places)
amazing how the inner course can get good to soft and the outer course is waterlogged
As long as plumpton is on next Monday I don’t care if ascot is on 
You hold a fixture in late October and what do you expect! It’s like someone being astounded that it’s warm in July or cold in January!
I’ve always said this was the biggest ‘fur coat and no knickers’ meeting of all time and don’t get me started on the name of that concluding contest on Staurday. Really, please don’t or I will need medical assistance such is the ire that that moniker generates within me...
I’ve always said this was the biggest ‘fur coat and no knickers’ meeting of all time and don’t get me started on the name of that concluding contest on Staurday. Really, please don’t or I will need medical assistance such is the ire that that moniker generates within me...
I think I can explain that one. The ‘inner course’ is in fact the hurdles course for NH at Ascot. They do not water it all summer as it is not in use. Several days of rain saturates the watered ‘outer course’ (where the flat racing takes place) to the point where the going is heavy while the bone dry inner one has only got to being good to soft. If the outer course is declared unraceable (quite possible looking at the Thursday/Friday forecasts), I have read that they plan to switch it to the inner course, although obviously the bends will be tighter for flat horses travelling at 35mph, a little quicker than the NH plodders would be travelling. Not sure how the straight course races would work as they surely would not run the sprint round the bend.
The fact that Champions’ Day is a running joke is entirely down to the stupidity of the people who run the sport. The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes used to be run in September but they moved it back a month and they took the Champion Stakes from Newmarket to create a fixture at a time of year when the going is virtually never going to be quick flat racing ground.
If the meeting is totally abandoned, under the current rules, the Group 1 races should be transferred to Doncaster the following week, but I cannot see how that would realistically work with five of them. A more sensible suggestion might be to get Newmarket to lay on an extra fixture and have the whole Champions’ Day card there.
The BHA deserve a good smack for this. We tend to think we are a lot cleverer than our forebears but maybe they had it right. The big Autumn Ascot meet was always the last Saturday in September. The following weekend was the Middle Park/ Cambridgesire meeting. The following weekend Ascot had its last meeting and then the Dewhurst/Champion Stakes/ Ceserawitch was run the following week.
The late Ascot meeting was often rained off, but I've never known a Newmarket meeting rained off.
I agree with SBC totally. I'd like us to go back to the old programme. In fact Champions' day at Newmarket was a fabulous meeting. Why do they think they know better?
lets get it moved to Southwell. Call it a prep for the breeders cup
Champions Day was a completely unnecessary creation, its invariably run in a bog and is stupidly placed between the Arc and Breeders Cup, two far more prestigious and important meetings imo, and where champions are actually crowned.
The Royal Lodge and Fillies Mile should never have moved from Ascot and the Champion Stakes should have stayed at Newmarket, moving it to Ascot hasnt made it any less of a second prize to the Arc, and as for the stayers race, we already have a championship defining one, its called the Gold Cup, those horses could have run in the Cadran instead. The QEII is now too close to the BC Mile with only a 2 week gap, no chance of winning both, its one or the other imo, especially with it being run in testing conditions. The fillies race has no prestige whatsoever and again is detrimental to the corresponding BC race, there really is no redeeming features of the card.
The Royal Lodge and Fillies Mile should never have moved from Ascot and the Champion Stakes should have stayed at Newmarket, moving it to Ascot hasnt made it any less of a second prize to the Arc, and as for the stayers race, we already have a championship defining one, its called the Gold Cup, those horses could have run in the Cadran instead. The QEII is now too close to the BC Mile with only a 2 week gap, no chance of winning both, its one or the other imo, especially with it being run in testing conditions. The fillies race has no prestige whatsoever and again is detrimental to the corresponding BC race, there really is no redeeming features of the card.