Equinties - Champions Day

Gm Equinauts

Things we learned from Everest Day - Australia IS horse racing.

Cheap tickets, massive crowds, every one suited and booted singing their hearts out and a $20m purse for the big one won by the best horse in the world.

That, friends, is how it’s done.

It would have cost about 50 bucks to get into over there, which is about £25 here. Want to go to Royal Ascot, it’s up to 5x that.

Have a look at the crowd:

There is a problem when the Jockey Club are considering relaxing our dress codes to try and get more people racing. Every single person in that vid are dressed up for the occasion - if you can get bloody Aussies to wear a suit, blaming our poor attendance figures on the dress code is laughable.

You see those green hats and green umbrellas? That’s the TAB, Australians betting pool. It’s totally racing focused and without limits! A complete contrast to the promotion oriented model focused on other sports we have here.

And the majority of the money taken by the TAB is put back into the sport contributing $1.3b…yes, billion, to Australian racing, hence their prize money (which is 10x greater than the UK). You wonder why all our top distance horses get sold Down Under!

In short, the Australian system recycles a larger slice of punting money and yields seriously rich rewards for the sport. France do a similar thing.

British horse racing desperately needs this model and now, because if you want a look at a country that has been f*cked by bookmakers, take a peak at Germany. It was once a thriving racing country. GALILEO and SEA THE STARS’ families go back to German blood.

The British bookmakers were invited in and have since stripped the game of it’s funds and give nothing back. Of course, they say they will have because they have to give a portion of their profits away to the levy…and look, they’re a business in a capitalist world at the end of the day, which is fine, but the model doesn’t suit racing.

Our racing is THE best in the world and our breeders produce the highest quality, internationally demanded stock,

but our prize money is shit.

British racing might as well hand out rosettes for first prize.

We need to take horse racing away from the bookies and create a racing centric product like that of Down Under.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

HAVING A MARE

We won’t spend too long on this as it’s Champions Day (yay!), but the Mares’ Hurdle will now be run on the Thursday of the Cheltenham Festival, rather than the Tuesday.

In short, the race length will now be 2m4½f (rather than just shy of 2m4f) over the stamina test that is the New Course. The Old/New course demands is direct parallel with the test of the Guinness village - at first you’re loving it, chopping pints. By the end of the week you need some serious stamina to see you through.

The Plate will now take it’s place on the Tuesday.

Whatever you think about the Mares’ Hurdle, they certainly picked the correct race to swap it with. Having the Plate and the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase on the same day and the same course seemed a bit silly.

Now, the Plate will turn into a speedier 2m4f for the open horses, and the Jack Richards is still a testing 2m4f for those improving novices who will get three miles in time.

As for the Mares’ Hurdle, it’s not cut and dry. Taking the race away from the Tuesday does suck a bit, because the Tuesday of the Festival was always one of the great punting days. Now, it is a day with four handicaps, the Champion Hurdle, and two novice races that could easily be won by one man (rhymes with Schmillie Wullins)

But the race did need changing. A 2m4f Mares’ Hurdle and a 2m Champion Hurdle on the same course were too similar, so much so that we had a situation like LOSSIEMOUTH last year.

At least with this new trip on the testing New Course, stamina-laden mares (who are good enough for the Champion Hurdle) have an excuse to miss the Tuesday, and speedy mares will have to take on the boys in the CH.

But, guys, it’s not that monumental; it’s just a race. The world will continue turning.

A HUGE NEWSLETTER TODAY, WE’VE PREVIEWED EVERY BIG RACE OF CHAMPIONS DAY AND HAVE BETS AWAY FROM ASCOT TOO!

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