SUNDAY NIGHT RACING

would be fine if they had a day off in the week which they wouldnt

Why would we want them to have a day off?  Other industries don't close down for one day every week.

we dont seem to have a rush hour around here on a sunday so lots of industries must be closed

I along with tens of thousands of others regularly had to work on Sundays. I suppose some might wish to abolish Sunday activities but other working people might wish to enjoy their day off and go racing.

Can't wait for another floodlight all weather shyte.

Blackrock, I feel the same about a few other sports but thankfully no one forces to me watch.

*forces me to watch.

It's not an industry. It's a sport and a way of life.

*Or at least it was, before summer jumping, the all-weather and evening racing made it a chore, rather than a treat you looked forward to.

Do believe it's been already pointed out that no-one is forced to watch it/bet on it.

many bookmaker shops open till late on sunday now for the fobts, is this a plan to keep shops open when the stake is cut to £2  in 2020.

All Rust and the rest of the inept BHA are interested in, is extracting as much money as possible from punters via the bookmakers.

Of course anything is a choice and we can always turn it off. Doesn't alter the fact that its not needed. Hughes is right in the aspect that stable staff are pushed to the limit, and next year the winter evening racing has to be finished by 8.30 at the latest.

That is to make life a bit easier for stables. The bookmakers would have racing 24/7 if they had their way.

Who cares about the bloody bookmakers. If you don't wish to go racing on a particular day then go to the cinema or somewhere else.
Stable staff have a trade union to represent them but it's no bad thing to support working people.

wouldnt it be easier for the staff traffic and travelling wise if they raced sunday evening at the expense of a day in the week,you could have a day in the flat season were its just summer jumping and nh season a day just a/w racing if they wont have a day with no racing

It's a bad idea because even trainers need a small window where they can relax and are left alone by owners and worries.
I think the other six days a week they are basically on-call 24/7.


But "Racing" is so slow to react to things. ATR and SIS (and even RUK) are busy staging racing from all around the world taking betting money away from our own racing. This is only happening because of the greed of some tracks. If we had all UK racing on one channel (RUK) there would be no room for Hong Kong etc. With two channels HK racing has got in the back door.

Hughes threatening to boycott is a bit silly. Other trainers will just take advantage of the lack of competition (as we saw with that female trainer, name escapes me, who didn't join the Yarmouth boycott a while back). Plus the big trainers are hypocritical. Gosden was against Newcastle going the sandy route, now he sends his best 2yo's up there.

French racing going to ATR is another example. Great for France, terrible for UK.

No problem with Sunday night racing but there is far too much racing overall. There is too much racing because the BHA is frightened of receiving less money from the levy if there is less. Think it was Josh Apiafi last week who said Nick Rust was watching the Ayr Gold Cup last week and desperately hoping Son of Rest had got beat in that photo. What a sorry state of affairs.

Lol, that's ridiculous. If it won most punters would lose the winnings back anyway.

That's my point about allowing foreign racing to become so prominent though. Foreign racing - even Irish - is a direct rival to the UK racing funding system. So now we have to keep staging more and more or ATR/SIS will just show racing from somewhere else.

Fear, It was Christine Dunnett who refused to join the boycott saying trainers such as Haggas could easily afford to miss such meetings.

cheers, sparrow

Sure you can just turn it off and go to the cinema. At the same time you can join the list of punters who gave the game up because you can no longer follow it properly.

A winning punter who takes days off doesn't become a punter who wins less; he becomes a losing one. The sort who rants on here about how did jockey X or trainer Y get that favoutite beat, it's all bent, etc. And then gets asked, didn't you see it last time? Totally dogged it, etc. Of course you didn't see it last time. It was a Sunday night and you were at the bloody cinema.

If you want to watch every single race on every single day then you probably will benefit from a visit to the cinema. But you could actually watch the replays if you feel you need to see every race.

I don't know how any punter managed before satellite TV enabled people to see everything. Still Alec Bird made it pay by just visiting one racecourse per day.

When do you propose we watch replays, when there's racing every afternoon and every evening?

You could watch them in the morning, I suppose, and forgo studying the form or having a bet.

The days pre-satellite TV were the golden age, precisely because you didn't HAVE to see everything. No one did. But just by going racing and seeing something, you immediately had a massive advantage over the vast majority of punters (and bookmakers).

Just think of that: a day out in the fresh air with your mates, and time to re-live it on the train home and look forward to the next day in the pub afterwards.

What have we replaced it with? Sitting indoors on your own, trapped on an unceasing treadmill of wagering opportunities every 10 minutes, every afternoon and every evening for ever and ever.

We've thrown away the greatest way of life a man could ever wish for in order to attract the addicts and the nerds.

You don't have to play like that screaming. Many people just specialise in certain types of races. I wouldn't even bother to look at a race like the Cambridgeshire and would ignore most of Saturday afternoons.  Strangely enough I had my first ever winner in the Cambridgeshire as an 11 year old taken to Newmarket by my father just 60 years ago today. Sorry for the aftertiming.

You can specialize in Group races, then find yourself blindsided by a handicapper that's been winning with more in hand than the Form Book suggested. Or specialize in sellers, and find yourself backing something dropped in class that you hadn't noticed had turned sour.

Specialize in hurdles, and get confronted by horses off the Flat. Specialize in chases, and find the handicaps are full of hurdlers making their chasing debut.

Many people have different ways of playing and I would never argue that something I personally didn't want should be scrapped. That is what a few people are saying on this thread and they should appreciate that not everyone hates AW or low grade racing. The system as it is means that courses will race when it suits their business and they won't be interested in what an off course punter wants.

I think unless one has inside info the run-of-the-mill races are surplus to requirement to most racegoers/punters except the bookies, Nick Rust and the BHA, and Mr Millington - these races are a waste of time for the purist, but merely fodder for the bookies. I think a selective sunday racing programme with reduced admission prices would be attractive to families too eg £20 especially if travelling is minimal and cost effective.

I believe a streamlined horse racing is beneficial to all, if not most.

Where are they going to get the horses from to furnish these additonal fixtures?
Falling field sizes over the last decade due to the bloated fixture list have caused much handwringing from both bookmakers and the BHA.

Specializing in Group races does not mean you only watch Group races or bet the horses that had run in them, surely?  Doesn't it mean you concentrate on Group races...by studying/reviewing form of the horses that are declared to run in them?  Quite a moan there, screaming.  No-one's forcing anything on you and it definitely sounds like you should go back to your old way of life and 'get out more'!

Specializing in Group races does not mean you only watch Group races or bet the horses that had run in them, surely?
2yo group races, especially the earlier events in midsummer could be a little tricky!!

Recommendation: No bet

24 Hr racing if you want it anyway,a Sunday night in Essex wont make the slightest difference............imo