Oct_110_Tony_Morris_Owner 19/09/2013 14:20 Page 23
jolly good luck to them. A run-of-the-mill meeting just to fill a blank day might be hard to justify, but a championship fixture as the culmination of a richly-endowed series of winter all-weather races – which is what ARC proposes – is a different matter altogether. The BHA has said that it will entertain applications for Good Friday fixtures, judging them on their merits, and if ARC can show it is able to deliver on its promise, the authority will surely have to look kindly on a scheme providing a substantial increase in prize-money in an area where it is sorely needed. Of course, there have been objections, one of them being that in recent years stables in Lambourn and Middleham have staged very popular open days on Good Friday. The proposed Lingfield fixture might well impact on the Lambourn event, and if Musselburgh were to be granted that date for its proposed mixed meeting, Middleham’s function might seem less of an attraction. But those open days do not have the force of long tradition and it is not as though alternative dates could not be found; there are plenty of Sundays that would serve their purpose equally well. After more than a decade without an open day Newmarket revived the event with great success last year on a September Sunday, and by the time you read this the 2013 event at HQ will no doubt have proved just as attractive. Nobody is obliged to go racing on any day and those who feel strongly that a Good Friday fixture is inappropriate will naturally exercise their option to stay away. That’s fair enough, but a race fixture does not deprive anyone of the opportunity to worship. My invariably wellinformed Racing Post colleague Bill Barber, when addressing the subject in a column last month, took a positive line on the proposal, but, at a tangent, was at pains to scotch any idea of racing on Christmas Day. “It won’t happen,” he wrote, quite unequivocally. Well, Bill, I’m happy to concede that we are not ready for that now and that it won’t happen in my lifetime, but I wouldn’t care to be quite so adamant that it’s never going to happen. I find it odd that whereas England has unquestionably become a far more secular society in the last half-century Christmas Day is kept more sacrosanct than it was then. League football used to be played on December 25, and it attracted large crowds, as was to be expected on a public holiday. In 1957 I was among the 6,774 at Plainmoor who saw my beloved Exeter City beat Torquay United 3-1 on Christmas Day. I was a bit too young to care in 1946 when the team recorded what remains its record away win – 6-1 at Brighton, also a December 25 fixture. Just why League football on Christmas Day became a no-no, I don’t know for sure, but I doubt that it was on religious grounds. I suspect it was all about the lack of public transport provided. Whereas there always used to be additional trains to cope with the demand, the service became depleted, then non-existent. I dare say transport workers wanted more money, or simply the time off, and the railway companies took what must have seemed an obvious decision. Then, as now, most football supporters travelled by public transport. Today’s typical racegoer is a motorist; lack of a rail service will have no effect, either on Good Friday next year or on Christmas Day in the future.
http://www.twydil.com
FUTURE CHAMPIONS
AVAILABLE THROUGH YOUR VETERINARY SURGEON
“In 1957 I was
among the 6,774 who saw my beloved Exeter beat Torquay on Christmas Day”
THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER
NEW FORM SYN U WITH ERGIC AC LA T BETA -CAR ION OTEN E
TWYDIL® STUD
Supplies the needs of broodmares and stallions in ma^bk \ho^kbg` i^kbh]' Lniihkml ma^ bgm^lmbgZe ÜhkZ' Favours milk production and colostrum quality. Aids the nutritional balance of the developing foal. & H_Û\bZeer \^kmbÛ^] [r E<A !Z_m^k ZgZerlbl hg ÛgZe ikh]n\m% nkbg^ Zg] [ehh]" \Zg [^ nl^] pbmahnm kbld ni mh ma^ ]Zr h_ ma^ \hfi^mbmbhg' & =^\eZk^] \hgm^gm `nZkZgm^^] ngmbe ^qibkr ]Zm^'
TWYDIL® is used by many successful breeders in the world. PAVESCO AG A^Z] H_Û\^ CH-4010 Basel, Switzerland Tel. (41)(61)272 23 72 Fax (41)(61)272 23 88 PAVESCO EQUINE HEALTH USA, LTD 321 N, 22nd Street St.Louis, MO 63166, USA Tel. (314) 421 0300 Fax (314) 421 3332
PAVESCO U.K. LTD. 116, High Road Needham, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 9LG Tel. (01379) 85 28 85 Fax (01379) 85 41 78
e-mail: info@twydil.com
23