Premierisation of horseracing...

Yes a great idea to wreck the industry and throw thousands of people out of work.

If bookies do not behave as bookies ie take bets then horseracing will continue its demise with time. A business or a sector can only continue or thrive if there are buyers and sellers eg retailers/supermarkets and shoppers; stocks and shares - buyers and sellers (a two-way traffic).

If the bookies do not want to take bets just take their betting and gaming licence away. It's so simple!

I've said this before but I still do not understand what premierisation is supposed to achieve and how it is supposed to achieve it. Whose behaviour should change? Owners, sponsors, racecourses, racegoers, punters, bookmakers, the media? The premier meeting on  a given Saturday will have a special logo, the most prizemoney, be on television, be in the middle of the Racing Post, exactly like before apart from the new logo. What's the flipping point?

It may be a straw in the wind but one or two of its former cheerleaders in the media are starting to have doubts.

i123, i agree that Farnsworth is correct and Premierisation is specifically aimed at promoting the highest quality racing .
I understand its purpose is to promote Beritish racing and breeding to the international audience and only high class, competitive flat racing is able to do this.

Two additional problems.

1. They somehow managed to make the same exact fixtures more tackier…I believe the old skool term is….gay.

2. There’s no separation between regular sh*t and the crème de la crème ie AW Finals Day lumped in with Royal Ascot.

With all due respect to Newcastle as interesting as today was with its various handicapping puzzles to solve its really just Luton vs Bournemouth compared to Arsenal vs City.

Has it happened yet ? And if so what has happened?

EastLower Gooner Joined: 09 Mar 04
Replies: 1910329

Mar 24 20:47  With all due respect to Newcastle as interesting as today was with its various handicapping puzzles to solve its really just Luton vs Bournemouth compared to Arsenal vs City.





Another vote for the European Super League and elitism.

...I do agree that for International ownership and breeding operations,( the big money),  the Preniership idea is plausible.

However, I'm now going to stick my head up above the parrapet , ( not sure why, lol )....so here goes.

I reckon that if you took any Group 1 flat race with 10 runners rated around 120, and then without changing the horses names, jockeys, or colours, you substituted 10 "ringer" horses rated around 95, and ran the race live on TV, very few observers could tell the difference in the " quality"of racing that they seem to crave.

I suppose I'm simply reflecting my own ignorance, but I couldn't tell the difference between a 100 rated miler from a 120 rated miler, if it was running against other 100 rated opposition .

So there, pick the bones out of that on Easter Saturday !..........regards to all, David .

It's the profile of the competitors that makes up the quality, as you allude to the naked eye is not going to tend to find a difference between runners rated 120 and those rated 95. There was a race the other day (I'm sure there are multiple such races), that had circa 10 runners and not one of them had won a race in their last six runs. That's how the pyramid works, the higher up you go, in general the more reliable the horses are, with regular winners and those who frame. The extreme end that we had for a while was bandit racing where most of the time none of the runners had seen the front of a race.

I think any horse race without a race card would be like any other unless the winner is a class above the others. It's like watching virtual racing but with real pictures not computer-generated.

But, premierisation to benefit some higher ranking racecourses but not the quality of racing eg more handicap races with more prize money solely to appease bookmakers (the chief influencer of UK horseracing) then it will never work; bookies initiatives have never been good for horseracing.

If yours truly cannot even contemplate placing a small stake multiple bet like in the old days at weekends because it's too difficult to decipher or the fear of negative consequences from bookies post winning (big if) I'd not even watch the races even if they are televised; presently it's the free to enter betting competition from various bookies eg 365, etc.

I believe the present horseracing scenario could be put down to the appointment of Mr Rust from Ladbrokes as head of The BHA; Mr Rust was instrumental in the gradual erosion and degradation of UK horseracing.

..Well, Mr Rust does sound corosive...he needs galvanizing..

But he never sleeps.