Whoose bright idea to move the Aintree hurdle from Saturday ?

Howard agree that’s bad enough but running the grade one novice chase after the national is worse but that’s jcr for you as Charlie edgerton said in a latter to the racing post yesterday jcr are not fif for purpose.

but saturday armchair tv  viewers /punters prefer the big race hadicaps to the graded races for having a bet

seem to remember an amateur 3 mile handicap chase used to follow the national at some point

Yes I did I remember hill of Sloane winning it.

Hill of slane

Have to confess the biggest shock for me also was staging that Grade 1 post National ,

Monksfield & Night Nurse  dead heat 77ish??

Same day as red rum won his 3rd national Geoff.

"but saturday armchair tv  viewers /punters prefer the big race hadicaps to the graded races for having a bet"     That's what the bookies would say but I remember Patrick Veitch saying recently that it was " interesting" horses that filled the bookies back in the day ( talking about record breaking 2-y-o Provideo )

Most don’t realise night nurse was giving 6 lb that day to monksfield,I wonder if the ornament was around back then what reason nicky would use for him not running.

Surprising that the Grade 1 is not live on terrestrial, but in recent years it's had very small fields and long odds-on shots - Jonbon, Shishkin, Douvan, Sprinter Sacre - so must be a betting turnover issue. If that's the case and they want to maximise betting turnover, put in on TV Thursday or Friday (even if alongside another G1 novice chase), and another handicap on the Saturday.

night nurse v monksfield  even if it was less turnover how do they know how many people got an interest or kept an interest in racing because of such races ? Therefore more turnover.  Answer is they don't know.

It’s a 3 day festival

Thursday 30k attendance
Friday 50k
Sat 70k

So they want to front load the other days to try and make it equal in attendance and profit.

Might end up 6 grade 1 s Thursday,5 Friday,
Then 5 hunter chases plus national Saturday.

Ascot and chelt do it

Royal ascot do it ?

Tuesday starts with 4 g1s.

Coventry stakes group 2

If your biggest day is maxed out,national,gold cup.
It’s pointless putting on good races around the main act,may aswell support the under card on the other days

so you get a few thousand more on course Thursday.  Good for the course and NOWT ELSE. The big audience is TV.

Jcr need as many as possible on course Howard the reason they have broken their promise about prize money is due to the attendance at the festival.

Maybe they will start to make a bigger effort to get people to come rather than chasing them away as thy certainly do at haydock.

I get your logic.

But in the last 40 years,no relative of mine has said,after you’ve put my national bets on,I ve noticed there’s a good grade 1 in the race before.do you think constitution hill can stay 2.4m.

Once a year public only bet in the national.

No one goes to Glastonbury to watch Rolling Stones,to then wander off to the poetry tent before.

A multiple-time world champion in three weight divisions, Julio Cesar Chávez was listed by The Ring magazine as the world's best boxer, pound for pound, from 1990 to 1993.


Why did Don King always have this guy fight before Tyson same night?  You could have filled the arena without Tyson on another night.

1.tv demanded it
2.don king threatened
3.to promote him,until he can justify his own card.

What’s a certainty is,let’s give the public value for money by putting on 2 great fights.

Maybe we need such a figure for racing so the racecourses or the bookies SHORT TERM benefit doesn't bring about  the mad situation where the greatest hurdler of all time runs when most people are at work/school.

What would have been different if CH had run the Champion Hurdle then Howard?

What would have been different if CH had run the Champion Hurdle then Howard?

That doesn't work well either these days.  Years ago you still "missed"  Champion hurdles and Gold Cups. But you still saw Arkle on many Saturdays and Bank Holidays. And Champion hurdlers ran more often.  I would have both the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup run on the Saturday. Racing is going down the pan. Big changes needed.

I don’t think the national is a shop window for racing.the once a year brigade are that,once a year.
Think stag dos,day trips,Cheltenham etc might make people intrigued.

As for midweek,a lot of 10/20 times a year people don’t half get hooked in this week.cold boring week after Xmas wall to wall news feeds,seems to resonate.

Most once a year ,plus hardcore think the national is a lottery,just seen as a bit of fun,good spectacle.

But that’s just my hunch,the bookies,itv will know.

If next Saturday the figures drop,there’s your answer.like horses,it must be the bounce factor

Maybe it's not the case these days but in the past the race hooked many youngsters for life.  Me and also former Timeform man Jim McGrath hooked on one horse Freddie. Must have been the same with Red Rum.  The Derby was on a Wednesday and I never saw it. If you also see a Night Nurse Sea Pigeon Istabraq on the same day all the better.

The greatest hurdler of all time

Steady on Howard

But the greatest hurdler is wasted on the general public,they don’t appreciate it,only interested in their sweepstake pick from work.
So moving it to a quieter day,enticing the swing voter makes sense.

The headline act is enough,so why waste good support bands,

Because he's never going to run on Saturday apart from Newcastle ?

nearly added imo jimnast

Howard,so that’s race planners bad organisation.

They should have 10 big Saturdays from Xmas,staging the 10 biggest disciplines leading up to chelt.

Have a champion hurdle trial day,a decent one.
Albert Barlett
Arkle
Etc etc

Concentrate on those disciplines on that day.

Chases in jan,hurdlers in feb.

Given 14/20 of most bet races are at chelt over the year,clearly midweek dosent seem to hinder this.

yeah if tracks need telling what they can do and are paid money to go against their own ideas that is what should happen.