why is horse racing so dull these days?

Far too much racing and most of it is low grade rubbish where form means very little.  It was much better in the old days imo when the flat and jumps had a proper start and finish to their respective seasons.

Thought the form over the firmer ground weather worked out quite well speaking for myself, and i have to say i never get bored with racing everyday is something new although some of saturday's results were not easy to predict.

There are a lot of sports to bet on now,some horses are obviously not trying,nothing ever gets done so how can you really enjoy it when you know you lost before the race even started.

WHY ?????, probably because you've been watching it on CH4 without using the MUTE button !!!!!!

Always make my own choice never listen to other people but its just so boring lost all interest in horses

I quite like channel 4s coverage,atr is the pits !

Age catching up with you skygreenzone,many of us go through the same thing,we need a new toy sometimes!

Possibly i enjoy the nh racing more see the same horses more.I haven't had a bet for 3 weeks thought i would be itching for a bet but think back too recent bets and think what is the point,you would have to be einstein to make money.

I agree with Pauli we have far too much racing

but I disagree over Proper Racing I think one meeting a day throughout summer is fine

well I like it...I find it easier punting than the winter

The obsession with the crap all weather racing has ruined racing

why we need it in the summer is beyond me it is dire

They have to have loads of AW sh1te to keep ATR going.  If it's crap racing you're looking for then ATR is your kind of channel.

Still gives me a buzz and in the old days really hated Sundays when nothing was on.
I must say joining Betfair has refreshed me no end and am in overall profit which was never the case 5 years ago.
Retirement and Betfair go very nicely together but do agree the bookies tracks are only a last resort for me.

Despite what people say, very little has changed from years ago.
The a/w which most seem to detest is there for the needy and greedy, you have the option to choose not to play, same with the Irish racing, the biggest problem is each individuals weakness in failing to have the discipline to abstain from playing.

There is still enough decent racing, it is just a case of being selective and playing when you believe the odds are in your favour, I have never been able to understand why people believe they can find the winner of every race.
Even when attending a meeting I wouldn't feel the urge to back in every race, straightforward probability tells you 6/6 or 7/7 is most unlikely to happen, so what chance has anyone got of doing it day in day out on here...?

Racing or the quality of it is not the real problem, peoples compulsive need for a bet and failure to accept responsibility for their own shortcomings is what really needs to be addressed.

I used to go NH racing every day in the early seventies and found the cards both interesting and attractive.  Now that the handicapper can penalise any horse that has shown a semblance of form means that the class fours and fives have become a lottery, with the previous non-triers coming out of the woodwork time and time again.  In the old days a horse was left alone if it kept coming second and the formbook meant something.  In essence, the handicappers' strategy makes sense but it has also unbelievably corrupted the game and distorted the formbook.

Jul 28, 2013 -- 1:15PM, Cork Langer wrote:

Despite what people say, very little has changed from years ago.The a/w which most seem to detest is there for the needy and greedy, you have the option to choose not to play, same with the Irish racing, the biggest problem is each individuals weakness in failing to have the discipline to abstain from playing.There is still enough decent racing, it is just a case of being selective and playing when you believe the odds are in your favour, I have never been able to understand why people believe they can find the winner of every race.Even when attending a meeting I wouldn't feel the urge to back in every race, straightforward probability tells you 6/6 or 7/7 is most unlikely to happen, so what chance has anyone got of doing it day in day out on here...?Racing or the quality of it is not the real problem, peoples compulsive need for a bet and failure to accept responsibility for their own shortcomings is what really needs to be addressed.

The racing authorities Trainers and jockeys needs for greed for more,is creating too much product(too much of the same toy and kids get fed up)

Most kids have favourite toys and rarely part from them, just because other toys are introduced the child is not compelled to choose it.

If there are 50 races a day, how many would you be interested in...?

If you could see the accounts of those that continually moan on this forum, I'd hazard a guess most would have played 40+, just because its there doesn't mean you need to be tempted by it.

Take today, 20 races in total, how many will most have looked at or choose to play...? I looked through the 3 cards and only saw 4 races that I felt were worth considering a play in, but won't play unless I'm able to get what I want, discipline and mental strength are the two most important factors for anyone who takes their plays seriously and has a respect for their wealth.

Apparently we have too much racing yet, when we get to Good Friday, why is there never a thread saying how wonderful it is that we are having a day off. Instead people berate the country/authorities for being so behind the times for having a "dry" day.

I still love the sport but some days there are so many meetings it makes you go dizzy.

Think yourself lucky you don't live in Australia, Slippy. Can be 10+ meetings on a saturday. At peak time there can be a race coming at you every two minutes.

Still waiting for the "no more characters anymore" comment

I lived in Sydney for over a year so know what it's like there. I used to be a regular racegoer at Rosehill especially, a lovely track that and if we did well then into town for Wentworth Park dogs afterwards! Happy days they were, I very nearly didn't come back in fact.

Not so much about the racing but the way we gamble. I remember having to wait for a paper, walk to the bookies get me money out and if I won then I would have money in my hand.

So in the old days we did not see the poor racing unless we went out to the bookies, we could not look at immerse ourselves in it like we do now and cash was cash not numbers on a screen. Sometimes I think progress has hindered us punters.

Agree with all of steamships post.

wish the internet had never been invented.

has made me very lazy. and lazy people tend to lose due to lack of homework.

and i do miss the days of 2 meetings a day back in the 80s when i would study form in the bookies for what seemed like hours before placing my one single win bet for the day.

Far to much low grade racing now and Bookies just following Betfair prices. No more fighting to get on, just stand in an orderly queue, boring.
At Ascot today a young lad was in front of me as I waited to be paid out on Barnet Fair. He said it was his 20th birthday and he had had four winners. I said when I first went to Ascot in 1954 at his age I could pick four winners but it is much more difficult now:-)
Back then the average punter didn't see the races so could not criticise the jockeys. If you did not have an account you had to use a street bookie or post your bets to Scotland.

I only bet on the big Festivals now with my preference being in order Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood, Ebor Meeting, Guineas meeting and then a few like the Ces, Chester Cup and so on

can't stand the day to day grind on rubbish racing where once you could find a horse that was well in and had to be trying because the trainer knew it was his best chance of landing a win, now there is no guarantee that horses are trying even when they are miles clear.

Dull mundane low grade that's where the biggest profits lie in general, although it's far more skilled than scraping round on the little value you get on higher quality racing.Roll on the aw!!

I find Flat racing very dull these days but still love the jumps. The Flat has always been a tough sell for me, given that good horses are wrapped in cotton wool, seen so rarely, and then shipped off to stud just when you start to build an allegiance to them. I also agree with judorick though; even 5 or 6 years ago you could study a card and have a real go on some that you fancied but now it seems that plenty run below-par for no apparent reason and others bounce back to form without warning. I too suspect this is because a lot of them are not trying in just about every race you see. If you go back 10 years or so, the top Group Ones were brilliant spectacles, too, often with different generations clashing, but now a lot of these races have very small fields and don't pitch together the horses you want to see take each other on.

once you got up to around £15 to £30k to the winner you can have more confidence but below that it's often 'whose turn is it today?' and that doesn't make for a good punting medium if you are working on past performances, trends, stats, ratings and so on. That's why I stick to the big festivals