Cant resist adding that whenever i ring for an antepost bet with Bet365 i am greeted with ‘sir, we cant let you have anything on that’. At least they should have the balls to close my account greedy cowardly b’strds.

Gordon63 yes i agree, you have to remember big business are following trickle down theory by avoiding taxes and it is not then being spent by them to benefit society, just to make themselves even wealthier via property which makes average joe even more worse off with property prices.

I would advise everyone watch the 2 episodes, everyone should know how a divide in society has been deliberately planned by business leaders. In addition it also interviews the guru in the States who the Phoney Bliar government consulted to break the teaching unions to eliminate workers rights. It isnt chance, poverty and instability has been planned to profit from which is despicable.

Racing is getting what it wants, maximum profits for the main stakeholders. There is no interest whatsoever from those stakeholders in keeping those who love or those who might in future love horse racing coming racing. In fact it is the opposite they are being deliberately excluded by pricing models.

They want a public sticking a pin (quickly) in and losing (quickly) with no real depth of interest.
They want attendees at racecourses to come as individuals in groups paying for drinks. These individuals wont have any depth of interest in racing it is a playground for adults to get their gear on and get p*ssed with betting entertainment laid on.

Discussion over. There will be no enthusiasts in future just a roulette table taking the highest $$$$ rate possible.

Ed Chamberlin is a very personable guy and a good presenter who is extremely good at his job. But he does not speak with authority on the sport eg when he speaks, he does not make yours truly want to listen to him because he does not know sufficiently about the sport through no fault of his own. He may be an ardent supporter/follower - recently or in the past - but definitely no Julian Wilson or Brough Scott; he's only employed by ITV as a presenter. Also, I do not think he'd be asked to front a specialist horse racing channel eg Racing Uk or BBC Racing, for instance. I'd be more inclined to watch and listen to ex-jockeys eg Murtagh, Carson, Kinane, Fallon, etc, for education and info because they'd been/still are involved with the sport. 

As a long time racing fan and follower of the sport my main bugbears with horseracing at the moment are eg:-

1) racing at saturation level,...a high percentage of which is of mediocre quality.
2) the difficulty in placing a bet and withdrawing money/fund post an (occasional) win without the risk of being
   restricted (wrongly) and (rescinded) eg with 'ok coral' - truly bizarre.
3) the lack of "genuine" investigative racing journalism and standard of journalism in general especially at the Racing Post
4) the cosy relationship between racing journalists and bookies, and trainers and bookies.
5) the exorbitant costs of a day out at the races (not punting) merely to watch the horses and races.

Horse Racing is facing competition from various other well supported sports thus unlikely to be able to redeem their past glory days. And to be perfectly frank I'd not miss horse racing coverage on terrestrial tv as long as the specialist providers deliver real-life pictures or transmission.

At the end of day I just like to enjoy a day out at the races and be able to place a bet (without concession, if must) when I want and how I want without risking being restricted and/or fund withdrawal obstructed/denied post an occasional antepost/ day of the race win.

Less talk and more action, please, from the racing fraternity and authority.

funnily enough the sky news reporter said he went to the races on a freebie junket thought it was a great day out but never been or thought of going back,one would assume if he,d endured all the average joe blogs costs ,he,d have rather cut his hand off than go again

chambnerlin the horse racing buff at chelt and not aware of the news regarding cue card probably to busy looking at the line up for next years fri music nights

Listen, the game is dying. I love going racing but that’s because I’m an old git (with some like-minded old gittish mates) who got into the game because it was the only thing you could bet on. That meant rascalry, excitement & mischief. If you weren’t (and still aren’t) an insider you could still revel in the sheer notoriety of the whole experience. Gambling wasn’t respectable; that made it even more fun.
Now gambling is no longer beyond the Pale and, of course, you can gamble on football, on individual singles as well as the myriad other bets on offer. Plus, football (&, I guess rugby and cricket if those are your things) are actually entertaining sports in their own right. You can watch & enjoy without a bet.
Now I go racing about 50 times a year but I wouldn’t watch a single horse race if I either didn’t have a bet or wasn’t watching with a future bet in mind. I don’t even like horses much; I like gambling and for me that’s nags. I dare say I’m not alone but the younger generation have different outlets.

And don’t get me started on the Animal Rights lobby - I give National Hunt racing 20 years tops.

Hard enough seeing the horse die, but on top of that Ed is in an even more 'congratulations to everyone' mode than usual. Firstly congratulating Ryan Day for his comments on the poor horse after Oily has told him what to say, then congratulating Boiled on his 'tone' in commentary. That has to be a new low. What's next, congratulations to whoever put the batteries in the microphones?

wonderful things credit cards and endless cheap borrowing

Debt is the downfall of the masses. It is the makeup of the financial markets, bundling and trading our debts is what makes bankers rich.
That is until their greed led them to bundle the mortgages they thought were safe with risky ones until homeowners in the States started defaulting on them as the middle classes were squeezed causing these subprimes to bring down the financial markets. Then as well as encouraging us to get into debt to get rich off our backs, they were bailed out of their greedy subprimes with tax-payers money but not only that, we were given austerity measures for their dismal failure. Not only that but the bailout cash found its way to the richest 1% what a great land of hope and glory.

The real threat to our wealth is a left wing Government who would confiscate most of it to finance their "progressive" policy.

I like going to Sandown its usually around £16/18 for grandstand entry.

Come the concert night its usually double, I've no interest in the band and wouldn't stay so never likely to go to one of these meetings.

Tell a lie, I went to Chepstow last year, on a Friday night, Simply Red were performing.

The stage was located on the rails at the furlong pole, this blocked out any runners up the near rail until past the furlong pole.

Friend of mine emailed the course about how awkward this was, their reply was well its always been there and will remain there i.e couldn't care less about the race watchers.

racing is not like other sports,its not something you do once a week,by sourcing the cheapest tkt you can still probably get a tkt,get the wife to drop you off ,pickmyou mup etc for 40 quid or under
racing is not something people tend to do on a weekly basis,working out the cheapest way to do it,if you treat it as the same equation as above ,cheapest entry,just get dropped off,picked up by the wife ,watch the races come home you can probably do it for 20 quid or under, but most people would probably set aside 200/300 quid for a day at the races even if they hope they don't spend that much,and for most it probably starts at 10 in the morning and goes on late into the night and is something they may do 6 times a year, if it were turned into a 20 quid event and the uniqueness of a special day taken out of it ,they probably wouldn't do it at all
getting smartened up
meeting the lads days drink
meal after racing
few pubs
etc. is all part of it ,if you just want to watch the racing and have a bet the sofa or maybe pub,club is the place to be,
how many of our age were engaged in racing through local social clubs with a bookies next door which had the old blower commentaries, fed into the club

meant under 40 quid for football match

the new wave of grandstands are basically shopping centres,leisure complexes. with ever increasing ways of getting you to spend money and besides viewing spots in accessable to most pockets have nothing to do with the racing

I love horse racing and football. I still attend the odd prestigious race meetings but not football solely because the total spend at a football match is so expensive eg £70/80; £40/50 for a ticket (opposition dependent), £10/15 for substinance and a drink, £10/15 transport/parking. And that is for one person!

Why would I want to pay to further inflate the already bulging wallets of the players (home grown and foreign) and egotistical foreign managers? If a bigger portion of my expense was earmarked for grass root football I'd be all for it. And now I do not even watch the Champions League since pay-per-view only (only the finals on terrestrial), but I still enjoy watching the FA Cup matches very much.

Jockey Club Racecourses had a lot of free tickets online this year for midweek meetings, went to Warwick a few times, let's hope they do the same next year.