Racegoers Club: My festival schedule shake up
My race-going in the last month took in a first visit to Southwell. I’ve never felt a great desire to visit the Nottinghamshire track. But when the opportunity arose to see one of my horses run there, I had no hesitation. After all, I’m always keen to tick another racecourse off my list. Southwell, like other all-weather tracks, often gets a bad press, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.
On arrival, I received a very warm welcome at the entrance and that set the tone for the day. Each member of staff I met was extremely helpful and took pride in their job. Maybe it’s because the course has regular meetings and everyone knows their job.
Everything was managed efficiently. The owners’ and trainers’ lounge had a buzzy feel to it. The food choices for lunch were excellent, and they didn’t just look good – they tasted very good too!
The racing was good, particularly the two novice races, where K Serra won the fillies’ race and Organise won the colts’ race. Both are well bred and promise to take much higher rank. Our two-year-old, Breathe Easy, finished third to Organise, which was very pleasing. Hopefully, he won’t bump into one as good as the Gosden colt in his next race.
My fellow owners and I had a very enjoyable day at Southwell and I certainly wouldn’t think twice about returning.
At the time of writing, we are in the middle of that wonderful period leading up to Christmas where each weekend has a top-quality jumps fixture. Hardly a day goes by without a promising performance being linked to a race at the Cheltenham Festival. It’s several weeks since Cheltenham announced their desire to move the Festival to a Wednesday start and Saturday finish.
The general response amongst jumps fans was ‘Oh no, here we go again’.The thought of staging the Gold Cup on a Saturday worries me. The great race will be lost on a busy sporting day, and it will end up being squeezed into halftime of either the rugby or football. If the appeal of the Gold Cup starts to wane, the whole Festival will follow.
So, I was encouraged to read that Cheltenham want to keep the Gold Cup on a Friday. If that’s their intention, maybe the rest of us need to help them find a solution that works. We need a compromise that includes a Saturday.
Here’s my suggestion. The current Tuesday and Wednesday are copied and pasted and become the new Wednesday and Thursday. They are both great days, so why fix something that isn’t broken?
The current Thursday becomes the Saturday card. The Gold Cup remains on Friday, with a few tweaks. I like the idea of moving the Stayers’ Hurdle to the Gold Cup undercard, so why not swap it with the Albert Bartlett? The Ryanair becomes the feature race on Saturday.Plenty of current Festival fans choose to go for two days, either the Tuesday and Wednesday or the Thursday and Friday. With my proposal, those that attend on Tuesday and Wednesday are highly likely to still attend on the first two days. Some of those that currently attend on Thursday and Friday are
quite likely to keep to the same days and discover the gem that is Champion Chase day. This will boost the crowd on the second day of the Festival. There is also a possibility of attendees being tempted to stay for the first three days.
My solution gives the Jockey Club the Saturday ending it is looking for while the bookies get a fiendishly difficult final day card.
Yes, the final day of the Festival will be the weakest, but the Saturday of Royal Ascot is the weakest day of the meeting and that is a sell-out. With some clever marketing, Cheltenham can do the same. More families will likely attend, and those that cannot get a day off during the week will have the opportunity to take in a day at our premier jumps meeting.