Watching today's great Group racing action at Deauville, it reminded me of the days when Group races were occasionally held on Mondays - such as the Scottish Classic at Ayr, the Beeswing at Newcastle and of course the Henry II Stakes and Temple Stakes on the bank holiday card at Sandown. Mondays were/are always fairly drab on the racing front so when we got really decent action such as those races I already mentioned, it probably made us appreciate them more. I know the Scottish Classic and the Beeswing are now run on other courses under new names but having top class races at Deauville today reminded me of those rare Mondays in the past.
cg where is the scottish classic run and what name is it under? remember betting endless hall in it years ago
Pilsudski, I think I'm right in saying that the Scottish Classic is now run as the SkyBet Stakes at York, the 10f Group 2 race that's run on the same day as the King George - won by Twice Over this year.
I think you are right about the race at York having moved south of the border from Ayr. Strangely, I think there was some sort of swap that happened because there used to be the Glasgow Stakes at York’s Dante meeting and I think that is now at Hamilton – just down the road from Glasgow. The Beeswing Stakes became the Lennox Stakes at Goodwood some time ago. Not sure why that happened as they are four-hundred miles apart. The demise of the old bank holiday cards in this country largely came about, I suspect, because so many people now take a long weekend and fly off to somewhere sunny (or somewhere forty miles from the beach if flying with Ryanair). The Deauville card was on Monday this year purely because the date (15th August) is a fixed public holiday in France. I suppose you could look at it like Christmas Day is always 25th December, irrespective of whether that is a Thursday or a Sunday. When Sunday racing first started in this country, there was talk about making Monday a blank (rest) day as the authorities had anticipated having Sunday racing nearly fifty-two weeks a year. I know from my time working in the business that many course bookmakers feel that Friday is a bad day because, as our society has become more like the 51st State, many people are commuting home on Fridays so attendances (and, therefore, volumes of money) are not great. For what it is worth, I do not miss the Ayr race as it was usually poorly-contested and would be won by some ‘nearly’ horse from one of the big stables.
