A Week At The Races - Sunday

There was a time when racing used to shut down on a Sunday, making it a day of rest.


It is hard to believe it was as late as 1992 that the UK staged its ever Sunday race meeting. Held at Doncaster, a massive crowd turned up, despite there being no betting.


It was a tentative “one off” and there were many protests with the “God squad” and fellow do gooders making the most noise.


The “God squad” protests were the most perverse, especially when you look at staunchly Catholic countries like Ireland, France and Italy, where there had been Sunday racing for years – indeed in all three Sunday was the most popular day of the week in terms of attendances and, in Ireland, betting turnover.


Well the world did not end that day, there was no hellfire and brimstone.


However the Jockey Club, who at that time ran racing were a conservative lot and they still had doubts about the great unwashed being allowed to enjoy racing and betting on the Sabbath.


Slowly extra Sunday meetings were scheduled, even as many as four Sundays a year, until racing eventually became a fixture virtually every Sunday of the year.


The crowds are not staggeringly high and it must also be said there tends to be a different crowd on a Sunday, it is certainly more family oriented. That is no bad thing as it is the family days that will hopefully sow the seeds for the next generation of racegoers.


There was, therefore, some surprise when the BHA announced the 2009 fixture list, to see there were four blank Sundays in the calendar.


Today being one of them.


Well, in contrast to 1992, there were howls of protest about there being no racing on these Sundays, so the BHA arranged extra fixtures, which is why I am racing at Huntingdon today.


For the racing hack the contrast between Huntingdon today and Doncaster yesterday cannot be in starker contrast.


Doncaster has a purpose built press room. Airy and spacious, plenty of power points and they also provide hot food. The work stations are spacious and have comfortable chairs.


Huntingdon by contrast utilises a spare corporate box. The “desks” are the round tables you find in bars, at which two of you can work – as long as you are friendly. Seating is again plain chairs or, if you are late, stools. The food on offer is sandwiches and there are three power points to be shared by everyone, which is why you find a large number of hacks travel around with a power extension lead in their bag.

At least Huntingdon does have wi-fi.


I must stress that I am only using Huntingdon as an example and they are by no means the worse course in terms of facilities. Indeed compared with some courses Huntingdon is the life of luxury.


There is one course where the press “room” is little more than a lean-to attached to the stand and it no more than 4’ wide, so to progress from one end to the other you come into very close contact with your colleagues.


Anyway back to the racing. Luckily there were only four of us in the press room today so it was not too bad in terms of space, although as I was the last to arrive I lost out on the power point.


One of the problems of Sunday racing is 48 hour declarations and what has happened today illustrates one of the major flaws of the 48 hour declaration system. In the 48 hours since declaration time there had been a marked change in the weather and the course had dried out.

This resulted in 18 non-runners, all bar three as the result of the change of going.


Indeed one race ended up as a match and that is not what we need to attract the casual racegoers.


The crowd today was not particularly large for a Sunday meeting, however that may be down to the fact this was an extra fixture and was not in the racing diaries and calendars.


The crowd that did turn up was the typical Sunday crowd of families and couples.


Well that is it from a week at the races. A somewhat typical week for me, although the driving was only 600 miles for a change.


I hope the blog has given some insight into the life of a racing hack.


Of course in ten days the “big one” arrives with day one of the Cheltenham festival. In the meantime I have to write some previews for the handicaps.


Wish me luck.