Where did all the Easter Monday meetings go?

global warming

It's not that long ago everything else was shut on this (and other) bank holidays..........

Racecourses get money to easy at the moment they don’t need to get crowds although it does help.

only one meeting RUK

Should have 2 AW meetings in place for this early year  bank holiday

It was a policy decision to spread the fixtures more evenly. Back when there were 20 meetings on Easter Monday, there were other days with just one or 2 meetings. Also very hard to provide proper supervision from the BHA for 20 meetings. Bookmakers also prefer a more even spread of meetings as another 10 cards would add very little to turnover and they have the final say these days. The chance of losing all of the GB turf meetings in April is very low but today it has happened and little chance of any this week I should think.

The chance of losing GB turf meetings in April was low for decades. But has the weather changed ?

zilch RUK

howard, yes it has. When it rains it rains harder. Most courses are better drained than in the past but they can't cope with 4 or 5 inches in a week.

I don't think it ever got up to 20 meetings but perhaps up to 13 or 14. I happen to have a 1936 flat racing calendar and there were 3 flat meetings on Easter Monday (13th April) at Kempton, Birmingham and Newcastle. There were also meetings at Alexandra Park, Bogside, Stockton, and Derby that month. Other closed courses that staged flat racing that year were Lincoln, Hurst Park, Gatwick, Manchester, Lewes, Folkstone, and Lanark.
An interesting oddity is that The Bibury Club seem to have staged a 3-day private meeting, presumably only open to members, at Salisbury in July.

yes easter used to have 12 to 14 meetings but whit monday had a high of 22 fixtures , nearly all N.H.

^ I used to love Rothbury, and Essandem winning at the Great Norfolk Hunt meeting, and Clareman winning at Huntingdon.  All the results were over the teleprinter in those days, with Extel reading them out after racing.

Only a couple of meetings a year wasn't it at Rothbury, jmdc?

Rothbury races.              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfKgUXmsCgo

Just the one at Whitsun I believe sparrow.  Stan Hayhurst was top jockey when it closed.

Apparently according to wikipedia the levy board was responsible for closing it.

I believe it suffered the same fate as Wye sparrow - not up to scratch.

wikipedia........................The last racing took place at Wye on 2 May 1974 and the course closed permanently in June 1975. The Jockey Club had insisted upon changes to the course in August 1974, including changing the camber of the bottom turn and improving the grandstand. However, the owners were unable to fund these changes, leading to closure. Wye was a very small, oval track, less than 1 mile

ATR LOST PICS

I'm looking at my 1995 diary and count 16 race meetings for the bank holiday Easter Monday (17th of April, 1995) - 12 jumps meetings and 4 turf flat meetings.