Good Friday racing will be with us for the first time in 2014
Good or Bad??
As most of you know the debate about racing on the traditional blank Good Friday has been going on for years but in the last few months the developments have been swift & now as announced yesterday by ARC (Arena Racing Company) who run Lingfield / Wolverhampton & Southwell as well as 12 other racecourses in this country that indeed there will be racing on Good Friday with the creation of the £1 million AWT Championships Day to be staged at Lingfield Park.
The debate has been fierce over the years, especially over the last few months mainly stemming from those who organise the Lambourn & Middleham Open Days as their argument was it would detract from the attendance figures plus not allowing many from the racing communities to have a day off this ideal was also backed by a good majority of people who are outside the racing industry.
Firstly I can see organisers point of losing their lack of exclusivity from being the only racing event to take place on Good Friday even to some extent that they might be down on numbers & yes the stable staff do work long hours with little time to themselves & sometimes in average conditions so a day off is always welcome....
BUT...........
Racing is a recreational sport so it needs to take place on Bank Holidays when the majority on the general public are able to go all the other Bank Holidays in the calendar are catered for example Boxing Day; The King George is a tradition over the Christmas period yet Christmas is equally as religious as the Easter weekend. Other sporting events take place on Good Friday so racing is missing out on much needed revenue.
With the announcement of the AWT Championships we know racing will happen on Good Friday this is my opinion is a fantastic idea, here's why:
Lambourn Open day organisers should not be disheartened as Lingfield is over 1hr 30mins away probably more on a busy Bank Holiday, most of the attendees that go to Lambourn have been going for years & it is part of their yearly calendar so that won't change plus the lure of seeing horses at close quarters will always be a powerful draw especially current NH Season Stars from Nicky Henderson's yard. Also the catchment area is not huge you rarely get people travelling from further than 2 hours away.
If Musselburgh also get the green light Middleham Open day has even less reason the worry than Lambourn as its over 3 hours away by road to Musselburgh.
Organisers of Lambourn / Middleham Open Days should also take heart from the fact that this years Newmarket Open Day (which was only in its second resurrected year) was extremely well attended & there were 3 race meetings on the same day.
The idea that staff in the racing industry will miss the day off to me is ludicrous as having been brought up with horses all my life..the notion of a full day off is folly, horses in training & horses in general can not be left to their own devices, they need feeding, mucking out, riding out when in training, checking over in the morning & evening, the only way you can truly get away from that is when you take a holiday & actually go away.
So I find it crazy that the people who have been lobbying for No to Good Friday racing do actually think that it is a day off for staff for all of the reasons I stated above & especially for the staff in Lambourn / Middleham...who do you think the people are that you talk to about the horses on these days are & how do the horses get so well turned out for these events if no one works??
Trainers of course will have runners on Good Friday down at Lingfield but surely that's a good thing as the with the two main Open Days you have the chance to potentially see a horse in the yard that is running later that day & talk to the people involved with those horses that are running. Thus giving the general public the opportunity to bet on a horse they have seen in his or her's stable earlier that day.
Also what happens if as like this year (Lambourn) the weather is so bad that the Open Day's is deemed unsafe to go ahead with???....nothing so that can't be good for racing.
So with the announcement of racing going ahead on a Good Friday perhaps we should now look at where we can drop racing to allow some time off for staff in the racing industry.
Monday's would be my suggestion, they are always average & poorly attended so cannot be bringing in the desired revenue for the courses certainly during the winter months.
Windsor on a Monday night is always well attended but that is an exception even so would it be so bad if Windsor was the only meeting on a Monday it would create more focus.
I would suggest 16 blank Monday's a year spanning the whole year so that would be 2 a month except between May - Sept when Windsor would be the only meeting in the evening.
As Sunday's are usually fairly quiet for racing staff could finish evening stables that night then only be needed for morning & evening on Monday thus gaining the majority of the day to themselves.
Racing itself wouldn't suffer as it would clean up the dross of Monday racing which in the long run would be more beneficial as it would allow the racing later in the week to become more competitive all you have to look at for an example is Ireland where they don't race everyday but when they do the races are often over subscribed.
Surely for Bookmakers this is what they want more runners enticing more people to bet on the horses & besides they would suffer not with all the revenue they take from people that waste their money on the FOBT machines now.
The AWT Championships itself is a massive boost to the one area of the sport that has struggled with bad press over the last few years, warned off gamblers, race fixing but now the trainers have something to aim for throughout those long winter months instead of potentially falling in with the wrong crowd to make the money up due to the poor prize money. I think handicaps are the way to go to start with as shown by the ill fated Blue Square sprint series which were always competitive & exciting to watch during the winter over the last few years. Maybe in a couple of years time the races can be upgraded to Listed level or even add a Group 3 to the card but for now competitive big field handicaps will fit the bill nicely. The 3 tracks involved must be rubbing their hands as these races will help boost attendances especially for Lingfield which can be a cold & desolate place in the early months of the year.
All in all, ARC, BHA & Jockey Club must be applauded for pushing through racing on Good Friday as our sport has finally come out of the dark ages & is now available on every public holiday, all that now needs to be done is beef up the quality of action throughout the other Bank Holidays in the year & we will have an exciting product to entice the public.
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