Cartmel 30/5/22 - The bank holiday that wasn't

Firstly to Chester from Saturday. The racecourse released an initial statement that can, at best, be described as "terse". They made it pretty clear they didn't abandon it but the BHA and stewards did and made it almost as clear that they were less than happy about it, though I may be reading that wrong and I'm sure they would never say that explicitly. The problem was that it almost seemed like they were taking out their frustrations on the punters- I'm sure this wasn't the intention but that's how it read. Cue stupendous backlash on social media and a deletion of the initial statement yesterday with a promise to review.

A lot of talk on social media, still, that they only did it because they were forced into it by the negative reaction and I would imagine it did catch them by surprise. There are often abandonments and no refund but the difference here (and other recent days) was that the abandonment wasn't caused by something obvious (deluge of rain, serious accident etc) but was on a beautiful sunny day which caused total bafflement leading to frustration then anger. I think the inspection party walking down the home straight, in full view of the public, could've benefitted by looking a little more sombre as well. One of the party shouted over that it wasn't going ahead and it was a full 20 minutes before the decision was made public- again, not a good look.

We are where we are now though so, for me, I think we should be accepting Chester's apology and give them the benefit of the doubt that they put out a statement under the pressure of a frustrating abandonment without realising the consequences. They have said they will look at options to put the matter right. Also, prior to the meeting, there was, effectively, a reduction in badge fees by basing it on an earlier, lower, admission price and not the "on the day" price. This was done prior to the abandonment so not as a result of it. Add to that JCR's decision to reduce midweek betting badges it looks like courses are accepting and responding to the lower attendances this season which must be welcomed. Still a long way to go and marketing teams need to be more creative and relentless in getting out messages but acknowledging there is work to do is the first step.

Finally, before the betting stuff, I had a chat with a couple of racetrack officials recently- they were both very positive about the benefits of an independent ring on the whole raceday experience and, I think, understood that a homogenised ring of Tote and Racetrack branded offerings was going to be a big turn off for the racegoing public.

On to Cartmel for the bank holiday Monday that wasn't (a bank holiday at least). Crowds a lot lower, as expected, and this was reflected in the betting where we probably did around half of what we usually would. Hopefully back to normality next year.

1) Low take and we stood Rose of Siena for a little more than we should and also got a liability on Bowderek which, disappointingly, wasn't priced at 10s. Favourite drifted fairly significantly but won like it had shortened and we had a reasonable start, pegged back by the aforementioned Siena making the frame.

2) We had max liabilities in both win and place on favourite Idilico, Bolsover Bill and Unique Company. Win liability on Native Choice. We got the best result in the book when Dan Gun won from another good winner, Forever Forward. Third was one of our place bogeys (Idilico) but that still made the each way market a winner for us too.

3) Still not taking an awful lot off the floor but we did manage to get a full liability on Calliope plus a half on Benito (which we also stood for the place). The winner, On We Go, was a loser for coppers, Benito placed and we took a baby step backwards.

4) The 4th was today's choose your liability race. We had a bookend book with big loser Via Dolorosa being beaten by outsider and half liability Jerrysback- we were out of realistic chances with a circuit to go. We are prepared for these ones and take it, as ever on the chin, when are colleagues are high fiving. Our friends next door apologised when they realised we'd lost but there was no need to. Half of profit gone and we were barely above expenses

5) The 5th was the Dionne Warwick stakes as the favourite, Clear The Runway somehow held on when it looked to all the world like both of our jackpots (Sao and Dr Sanderson) were going past. Absolute heartbreaker and the difference was well into 4 figures. Joint kicked, expletives muttered. Another step back.

6) We took plenty on the jolly, Seddon, and stood it for the max. It's hard to have big winners in 4 runner races on relatively low turnover so the winner, Fire Away was a modest winner, but a winner nonetheless. Our jackpot, Eritage, fell at the last and badly hampered Fire Away which left Seddon a clear leader and about 1/8 in running. Fire Away rallied magnificently (from our point of view at least) and we clawed a few quid back.

7) We had a lovely book. We'd laid Envious Editor for plenty on the opening show of around evens to 11/10 and it drifted to nearly 6/4 at one point. We ended up with a half liability on it and chances all over the book, particularly the smashed up 2nd fav, Matts Commission. We were left eating value for dinner though as Envious routed the opposition and another loss was chalked up, though place bullets dodged which halved the win loss.

8) Another race, another jolly. Liffeydale Dreamer winning by miles. We stood Tokyo Getaway which meant that Liffey was a taker rather than a loser and another decent place result gave us a small win overall.

5 favourites and an outsider that we lost on should have meant a losing day but the jackpot in the 2nd and a kind place day meant we had a win overall but more of a wages win than a bumper one. A combination of 2 days additional accommodation expenses and my darling daughter's birthday has meant we are not staying down for the Wednesday fixture so next time we're out will be at Musselburgh on Saturday. Until then...