Doncaster Going at weekend....

Todays (wednesdays) report in the post laughable how on earth can Doncaster be "confident" of racing on Friday despite a going description of Heavy waterlogged places  and Rain forecast ALL day Thursday.............

There was a lot of rain in the area on Monday and Tuesday with further flood warnings.

Not sure how much Donny got but it can’t have been helpful on the back of the storm last week.

But yes…I agree with what you said about the incorrect descriptions and it’s different websites as well. The goings on here also differ to what’s reported and at various times I’ve noticed a few of them eg SL, RP, Here etc all being out of sync with each other.

Was kind of tempted to go on Saturday but there’s football, South Africa vs all blacks final and the Tyson fury fight…plus my regular college football.

Might go for the Nov Hcap if I find something i like in it.

comingupthehill...your comment about 'punters cancel day out' suggests you have not lately been to Doncaster Races on weekdays.

Believe me, the attendances are pitiful are there will be nobody cancelling on the back of a more realistic outlook.

As for 'what else can they do?' Well, just tell the truth! This second guessing by clerks and trying to be too clever by half just ends up making it worse.

You speak about how it could end up soft and yet through forecasting it heavy they will lose lots of entries. Well, it works the other way around just as much. Through being unrealistic with the forecast they end up with horses then being withdrawn on the day if the going is worse than they forecast - and that is the worst scenario of all through affecting betting turnover the most, as well as wasting the travel expenses of connections.

So, you see whatever they do is not perfect. Hence, do not over complicate things. Just tell the truth and let events take their course.

Also, it is interesting to consider how it is a two day meeting with the second day on a Saturday. Last December a Friday and Saturday jump meeting there looked threatened by the weather. In the end they raced on the Friday but lost the Saturday. This led to speculation about how they might have sacrificed the Friday for the Saturday.

However, I talked to the chief exec of the track early in the New Year and she said that they would only ever cancel a Friday to increase the chances of racing on the Saturday IF the Saturday was virtually guaranteed. Reason being, they could cancel Friday and then still lose Saturday and hence take a double hit. In other words, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

All of this makes me wonder if the BHA should seriously consider shifting big races from the Saturday to the Friday if a two day meeting is under threat of weather.

Lastly, I'm a member at Southwell and thus can go into all ARC tracks for free - a tremendous bargain for retired people like me who can racing all the time. Hence, I use Donny and Uttoxeter a great deal. But now Southwell is out of action and today Uttoxeter have shifted their meetings on November 3rd and December 12th to Ffos Lass in order to give themselves more time to repair the track between meetings due to ground damage with the wet weather.

Hence, if Donny is off at the weekend I will seriously start to believe the racing gods have got it in for me specifically!!!

As you were saying - The Knight

Doncaster 'can't take a great deal more' rain as inspection called for Friday card before Group 1 on Saturday

Day one of Doncaster's two-day Group 1 Kameko Futurity Trophy Stakes meeting on Friday is subject to a 7.30am raceday inspectionwith the ground described as heavy on Thursday.

Conditions were reported as being raceable on Thursday but clerk of the course Paul Barker admitted there is only so much more rain the track can take following recent heavy rain.

"We've had more rain today than was forecast," said Barker at 5pm on Friday* . 
* ( -  Surely a Racing Post TYPO ... and MEANT - THURSDAY )

[/b] "We're currently raceable but the forecast for tonight is not settled and there's the chance of further showers this evening and the logical thing is to call an inspection for the morning.[/b]

"Some forecasts are saying we could get 3mm and some are saying a little bit less. The only thing they are all saying is that it's going to be a foggy, misty evening so there's always going to be moisture in the air. We'll have a look in the morning and see where we are."

Asked how much more rain he thought the track could take, Baker added: "Not a [great] deal.
With the amount we've had in the last week, just over 80mm, it's rather full now. We had just over 4mm this morning when we were forecast 1mm and it's been one of those horrible, drizzly, damp days when it's not had any chance to soak in or dry out at all. It's not really where we want to be but we'll have a look in the morning and make the decision from there."

Saturday's meeting at Doncaster is due to feature the last Group 1 of the season on the Flat in Britain and Baker said: "Tomorrow is a misty, damp, foggy day. It's not going to rain once we get to 11am but it's not going to be a drying day. Fingers crossed by the time we get to tomorrow the outlook is a little bit better through the rest of Friday and into Saturday."

What a surprise....Paul Barker has been overly optimistic all week.

Fortunately, some of us older brigade do not allow the 'spin' nature of modern society to cloud our judgment. It wasn't lost on me when they moved the Group 1 on Saturday to the second race on the card so as to run it on less chopped up ground.

Having said that, I fervently hope racing does go ahead both days (or just Saturday will be OK) not least of all because I am / was looking forward to going. But I made it 8/13 on Wednesday we'd lose Friday and now I make it 2/9!!!

Lastly, I really do not understand race planning in the UK.

Surely having so many 2yo races on a big card so very late in the season is looking for trouble. It is one thing a field of seasoned, Class 5, 4yo and older handicappers ploughing through the Donny mud but quite another high class youngsters!

In my humble view, Champions Day at Ascot and the Racing Post Trophy (as I still call it) are both run 1 month too late. Yes, the RP trophy has been run this late for years but weather conditions have changed now and it should be staged earlier in the autumn.

I'm there for the racing just stuck me head out it is dark and damp and wet I cannot believe they can race on this like where they run the Velda over the fields that sort of going I'm not expert mind you.

Knight on the money,its off today

Knight, you still call it the Racing Post Trophy. I call it the Observer Gold Cup!

Varying going descriptions from differeing media outlets have been happening from the start of creation. The jocks on Saturday on ITV couldnt even agree on the going.

Mr combustible...I only call it the Racing Post Trophy because that is the most recent of its names I can easily remember!  At 63, I, too, could call it the Observer Gold Cup or the William Hill Futurity (I think that was its name for a while in the 1980's?).

Geoff M..I did not say to bring Champions Day forward, I simply said it is a month too late. Of course it cannot be brought forward easily because it would clash with so much else but in itself that shows the ineptitude of those who run UK Racing. We already had the ARC, Irish Champions weekend, Breeders Cup, Japan Cup, and Hong Kong Day all in autumn or at season's end. So, the BHA having already missed the boat, just had to have a 'Champions Day' of their own.

The only weekend left was when the going is, more often that not, Soft or Heavy. Running Champions Day on desperate going in mid- to late- October is not my idea of a Champions Day at all.

But the real irritation is how all the races on Champions Day already existed and were run across Ascot and Newmarket anyway. So, perhaps just either leaving things alone or, if we really MUST have a Champions Day so late in the season, run it at Newmarket. For those on here too young to know, Newmarket's Rowley Mile has only ever lost one set of meetings to the weather in its long, long history. And that was in 1987 when the great storm rendered the grandstand of the time unsafe because it took off part of the roof. Hence, run Champions Day at Newmarket when the going will almost never be worse than Soft. Too late, now, though because Ascot will not give up a crowd of 32,000 and the TV rights.

Lastly, as for the difference between precautionary inspections and normal inspections - there is none. What is the need to call it precautionary? Donny could have raced Thursday and the weather forecast overnight was not for more rain, so today's inspection was just that - an inspection! Calling it precautionary serves no purpose and takes me back to the original point of the post that began this thread. Too many people in racing trying to be to clever by half and ending up tied in a bit of a knot as a result. Keep it simple, tell the truth and be realistic.

Too late, now, though because Ascot will not give up a crowd of 32,000 and the TV rights.
  -- Newmarket has a far better race now than it used to have with the champion stakes there. Future champions day is a great day and I don't think they would want to go back. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. It's Autumn in the Uk and your going to get soft/heavy going most of the time. It doesn't the Arc being a great race. All this harping back to the 'good old days' is a load of nonsense. If you want a fast going 10f all aged race in the summer you have one at York.

Pretty awful planning by the person who booked the busses! Surely if you organise a race day you should be checking that it is on! Or perhaps the caterers have offered a better deal today if there is no racing.

Man doing a 3.30pm inspection because that’s when Bergerac ends lol

Yes, overwatering to keep the ground as close to good as possible. All fine, if it never rains. When did firm ever become a dirty word? Around midway through the last decade, it would appear.

That was quick…guess he wants to get back for Countdown at 4pm.

Why don't they just gallop a horse around the course to see what the ground is like and replicate what is actually going to happen on race day. Surely that would be a better way of assessing the going than 10 blokes wandering around in wellies with sticks.

DONCASTER ON, passed inspection, going heavy.

truehoncho 27 Oct 23 15:52 
Well they will gallop a lot of horses around it for the first 2 races tomorrow and make a decision then. It gets the G1 out of the way and saves them on the refunds. Win, win.





I did wonder why the best race of the day was put on so early.

The Group 1 race I was thinking of, jimnast.