Ascot gets £3million grand finale – but will it work?
Better late than never.
After months of wrangling and the entente somewhat less than cordiale with the French counterparts the BHA announced the fixture list for 2011, which included a shiny new end-of-season meeting for the Flat turf season.
British Champions’ Day, which should not be confused with the Champions’ Day that will be held for a final time at Newmarket next month, is supposed to be this country’s answer to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe day or the Breeders’ Cup meeting. Which is all fine and good, but this fixture will take time to grow. The Arc card has six Group One races and, in fiscal terms, the Breeders’ Cup has a prize-money pot which is north of $25million.
By comparison the new Ascot meeting, which is scheduled for October 15th next year, will feature two Group One races – the Champion Stakes, which will move from Newmarket, and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes which switches from its present September date, backed by three Group Two races – the Diadem Stakes, Jockey Club Cup and Pride Stakes - as well as a high-value handicap.
The new meeting is being trumpeted as the richest fixture in British racing’s history, and is the third attempt at a finale meeting. The first was the Festival of British Racing, at Ascot’s September meeting, which was then superseded by Champions’ Day at Newmarket. Now, like Dr Frankenstein, the brains trust has come up with a new fixture that is an amalgam of both. The question is will it come to life as the marketing department hope?
Clearly it is lightweight in terms of initial quality when compared to the French and American models, the long-term aspiration for this event, which are virtually wall-to-wall championship races. There could have been scope to increase the quality of British Champions’ Day by adding the various juvenile Group One races the current Ascot and Newmarket meetings contain.
Some of those have been drawn together as part of a Future Champions’ Day – just to make it different – which will be held for the first time at Newmarket on October 8th 2011. This card will the Dewhurst Stakes (Group One), Middle Park Stakes (Group One), Rockfel Stakes (Group Two) and Autumn Stakes (Group Three) for two-year-old horses, and the Challenge Stakes (Group Two), Darley Stakes (Group Three) and the Cesarewitch.
There will be some who will feel that this has not been radical enough, when all the Ascot and Newmarket Group One juvenile races – including the Fillies’ Mile and Cheveley Park Stakes – could have been thrown into the melting pot of one, stellar card.
That would probably have caused an even greater furore with the French racing authorities, who were already staunch in their opposition to the current plans in what they perceived as a threat to the Arc meeting. But, more importantly this could bring two strong fixtures. The Arc and Breeders’ Cup can feel like a sensory overload, where important races are lost on a conveyor belt of quality that can almost be self-defeating.
If racing is trying to learn from other sports then it is probably wise not to place all of its most precious eggs in one basket. Would football ever hold the last round of Premier league fixtures on the same day as the FA Cup Final?
However, the marketing men were not stopping there and have also unveiled the British Champions’ Series. This is supposed to help the cause since “successfully differentiating and marketing premier events can transform their popularity, with the benefits felt by the whole sport, including increased attendances, betting revenues, sponsorship and media rights value.”
Does that sound a bit like the Sovereign Series and does anyone know where that is right now?
Anyway that launches with the 2000 Guineas and climaxes with British Champions’ Day at Ascot. It will comprise five separate championship categories - sprint, mile, middle distance, long distance and fillies’ and Mares - and will feature six of the highest-rated races in each category “to create easy-to-follow storylines for a wider audience”. Oh, so that’s what they did with the Sovereign Series.
Aside from the headline announcement, the BHA finally rolled the 2011 fixture list out, two months later than originally billed.
The main news, little of which was a surprise, was that Newmarket’s July meeting moves from Wednesday to Friday, to Thursday to Saturday, with the July Cup continuing to be staged on the final day of the meeting and the Ebor fixture at York moves from Tuesday to Friday, to Wednesday to Saturday.
Over jumps the Finale meeting at Sandown will take place over the Easter weekend, in a bid to strengthen what has become a featureless Bank Holiday programme, and Aintree’s November meeting, which features the Becher Chase over the Grand National course, moves to the first Saturday in December, to provide a high-profile addition to Sandown’s Tingle Creek Chase card on the same afternoon.
So much for the quality but the rank-and-file fixtures, which have caused plenty of rancour among those who feel that there are just too many of them, have changed very little. The drop from 1,503 to 1,480 is pretty meaningless and the sport’s craven desire to increase its profile will never be fully realised until the people in charge – and that seems to be an ever-growing list of vested interests – realise that six other meetings on Derby day does nothing to help the media promote the main event.
The debate will rumble on but one group with a deeply vested interest will be glad that it is all settled. Those who have the contract for printing the various racing diaries can finally get started.
Better late than never.
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