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Racecourse Closures
Racecourse Closures
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Replies: 223
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I haven’t been Foxy but it looks ghastly on television.
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My least favourite Ayr, I agree
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The owners and trainers at Ayr is good, with lunch in the hotel. Nowt much else though
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Get rid of Yarmouth
 They should run the Derby there . Cut a hole in the fence and a thousand empty caravans next door for the jockeys et al to socially distance in . |
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Ayr as a town and a racetrack has deteriorated over past 30 years about the same level as Hamilton and Musselburgh have improved - Perth and Kelso are just lovely courses and ideal for their catchment crowd. The viewing from the top of the stand at Ayr is very good however, similar to Kelso but with a roof and no coal fire smoke!! Ayr also switched to Tennents Lager a few years back and binned that Fosters crap - all regional courses should IMO offer at least some local brews
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that johnny mustang talks the biggest load of shoite i've ever seen. cheers.
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fair points Gordon about Ayr , i'm pretty central, so all courses are fairly easy to get to. hopefully we will get to the races some time this year
aye the bairn, the last time he was wrong was primary school   |
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This has generated a lot of response! The reason why some courses should be sacrificed is that the levy is spread far too thinly and that makes our prize money very low and it will be lower still now as the levy will fall. I don't care how many courses survive without a subsidy but the top 20 that provide the most competitive racing and highest prize money should get levy help while the rest have to fend for themselves. Point to Pointing does fine without the levy.
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less frequent racing at the AW courses will be a start - one saturday last summer there were 3 AW meetings, this is not what they were intended for - also there are too many listed races which have decent prize money but few runners, this should be diverted into more top class 90-110 handicaps as I doubt the US approach of high value claimers would work here.
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Sageform is of course correct. The levy should not be used for under-performing racecourses and should not be propping them up. There will regrettably be casualties over the next few months/years and if we lose a Southwell a Hamilton on an Ayr along the way then so be it. No matter. This should be about survival of the fittest not the most needy. Take note Scotland.
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once again, johnny mustang, he has cut his 33 down to 3 in a matter of hours, how could anyone listen to this clown, fu-kin idiot. cheers.
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Think people are being unfair about use of the levy. If bookmakers want racing when not many want to pay to watch then they have to put their hands in their pockets. I think levy contributions to courses are based on what they contribute to off course turnover so it's not really a handout.
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You need as many racecourses as possible, just to emphasize that this is a horse-racing nation. That it's everywhere, and part of what we are, and it's not going anywhere, however much people with no experience of it disapprove.
Taunton was there on JM's list, and it's my local track. I found myself at a New Year's Eve party a couple of years ago, and I was the only one there who wasn't a schoolteacher. I was asked what I did for a living, and when I replied, "I back horses," you could have heard a pin drop. Some guests glanced at their feet, one couple glanced at each other with pained looks. I know what a particle of virus must feel like now. Then, one of the guests cheerfully piped up that she'd been to the races at Taunton for the first time the previous week - something to do post-Christmas - and it had been great fun. She'd backed Plantagenet on account of being a history teacher, and had watched it make all. Suddenly the tension left the room. Whatever lectures they'd been preparing for me would have to be put aside. It turned out that horse racing and betting is a normal thing, and not something they can stamp out quite yet. |
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All the Scots tracks worth a visit, and Hamilton is excellent.
I like all the so-called gaffs as they retain the old values are are in the middle of nowhere. Hexham is idyllic. |
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None of them should close, all different, and is what makes British courses great.
Hamilton also only a couple of miles away from Shawfield, home of the Scottish Greyhound Derby.  |
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I have been to Ayr quite a few times, when I visit the outlaws in Troon. Its a very fair track and the viewing is great. Ayr gold cup day is fantastic, packed crowds and most very knowledgable about form.
Basically its scotland's premier track so will/should not ever close. Only an hour from Glasgow on the train so it gets the crowds. I have only one big complaint. That Ascot doesn't race more often, especially during January to April. Three race days in four months, how does that make sense. Also weird how the one evening fixture ,first Friday in may never attracted the crowds. so they switched to afternoon. It started off great with a wine festival attached, but then went downhill fast. |
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In defence of Ayr and I am not a fan of the place it has a similar problem to Newcastle and Doncaster they are huge racecourses but can only get big crowds for a few fixtures which makes them soulless the rest of the time.
A racecourse that often gets stick is Hamilton it can only be from those who have never been , |
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The trouble with Ayr is it loses too many meetings (often big ones) because of the drainage problems.
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"none of them should close" is easy to say but how do you justify financing them? Betting turnover might take a few years to recover and so will on course attendances. There will almost certainly be less owners willing to buy horses and less trainers as well so we will see a fall in the number of courses. It will be healthy for racing like any other business for the weakest to fail and new and better courses coming along one day. The changes at Newcastle and the new course at Chelmsford are examples of the direction of travel. You have to take note of where people want to run horses and where the best prize money is. This is the appropriate time for a major shake up of the sport and if it results in a 2 tier system of 20 top class flat tracks and 20 NH with the rest being much lower standard and unsupported ones then that is progress in my book and I have been following racing for 65 years. I happen to like Taunton which is my closest along with Wincanton. It is well managed and will probably survive.
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well said foxy!! as an annual member at Hamilton for past few years I thoroughly enjoy my days out and racing there, the quality of which has steadily improved over the past 5-10 years in particular, my only gripe is that due to the course configuration there are no races from 6f to 1m1/2f. There's a decent few of us who go to most of the Scottish meetings and sometimes further afield also and you're always sure of a good welcome in the Academical Vaults or Bay Horse before/after racing. Having a few beers pre-Ayr makes the 'soulless' days very bearable! I've not been to Ayr GC or Scottish National in more than 30 years, since as much as I like a drink, some of my compatriots take the big days at Ayr to a different level - one that i've only ever seen equalled at a York Saturday music night and any Haydock summer flat meeting!!
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Sageform
Betting turnover might take a few years to recover,won’t even take a few weeks. |
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Foxy - Betting turnover might take a few years to recover,won’t even take a few weeks.
All household expenditures are going to be dominated by two post-covid-19 factors a) employed or un-employed (I wouldn't be at all surprised to see more than 5 million unemployed at some point during 2020) b) the tax hikes (income, corporation, VAT) imposed by Govt to pay for the furloughs, unemployment benefits, increased health/social care expenditure etc etc The lucky few who have and will continue to work (either from home or in a social distance respecting environment) will have extra pounds in their pockets due to the restricted outlets for leisure/travel etc so may be inclined to punt more often or to larger stakes but I doubt anyone with any sense will be betting to their pre-covid-19 levels until the form has settled down and that could take at least 2-3 months although I'll be following the usual suspects e.g Fahey, Evans, Hannon, Murphy & Skelton from resumption Day 1!!! |
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Gambling goes up when wages go down. Crazy I know but it seems to be a fact.
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Correct truehoncho
Regarding unemployment going up that’s good for the betting shops Gordon ,I know you spend a lot of time on form but you are in a huge minority just look how popular the fobt machines are and the virtual racing,I still go in betting shops the punters are swearing at the jockeys in the virtual races ,one the shops reopen they will be plenty in them from day one. |
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I think think like gambling in Casinos and high end gambling may decrease. Still the crazy fact that if you earn less you gamble more is well established.
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I still go in betting shops the punters are swearing at the jockeys in the virtual races
That made me laugh foxy . |
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Reading what you say foxy about the patronage of betting shops on re-opening you clearly do not think that during the lockdown people's habits will have changed and a return to the betting shop is not a given. We shall see.
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Not those who bet democrat the online will boom on day 1 the betting shops the same the day they open.
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Foxy
over these horrible times Corals online sign up have gone through the roof. will they come back into the shops, in my experience for every 10 I have signed up 4 return the other 6 seem to stay online. hope you are well stay safe Ronnie. |
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I fear there will be be a closure of shops in general and betting shops will not be an exception. I hope I am wrong.
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As far as know there are 12 in Newmarket that’s a lot,I agree democrat some will go but they were going before this,same with pubs those that go will have only had one summer left anyway.
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Posy
Something else you can here them shouting around the shop after one of those virtual races is I backed that one last week and knew it was unlucky but didn’t realise it was running today. |
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foxy
Don’t know what they are saying in my local betting shops as seldom English is spoken! |
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Blimey Foxy sounds as if you are an expert on this virtual racing lark. Next time you find out one is off dont forget to give your old mate demo the lowdown
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The figures in favour of the bookmakers would make you think the racing was taking place on the July course and there getting there prices from the garden enclosure
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Not sure what you mean Foxy !!!
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b) the tax hikes (income, corporation, VAT) imposed by Govt to pay for the furloughs, unemployment benefits, increased health/social care expenditure etc etc
Must be a fair chance we'll be adding betting duty to that list of tax hikes. Question is, will it simply be a rise in the current tax on bookmaker profits (which won't affect the punter)? Or will it be a new levy on the punters themselves? A return to the old turnover tax, in other words. I know the latter would be barmy and self-defeating. But the small, middle-class anti-gambling lobby seems to be a lot louder and a lot more successful in getting what they want these days than you'd expect from their numbers. Hammering the punter would go down well with the media. |
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away from the thread topic, screamingbeneaththe waves/foxy and others a question ! you make your money betting i assume from the daily jumps and flat stuff how is this lockdown affecting you and others on here who rely for most or some of their income from gambling on the british stuff ? how are you and others adapting ,what if any methods are you trying or is it complete down tools so to speak untill we are back to something near normality .
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