Master Minded belongs in a rarefied bracket of horses that can pull a crowd and Cheltenham is the most successful racecourse in the land. The combination of two such assets this weekend will be the litmus test of just how far Sunday racing has fallen from its original concept.
The idea, lost now in a fog of mediocrity, was that Sunday racing would be special, an accessible showcase for top-class horses mixed with family entertainment. What it has become is Monday under another name. And it is getting worse.
It may be claimed this is due to lack of interest from terrestrial TV companies but racecourses are equally to blame, settling for the cheap, humdrum offering just to turn a profit. Some do Sundays conspicuously well, especially in summertime — Perth, Pontefract, Chester and Salisbury, for instance — but can you name a prestigious Sunday meeting that really resonates?
Newmarket’s 1,000 Guineas day and the final day of Ascot’s September meeting are the most ambitious on the Flat but neither commands the support one might expect. The same goes for the keynote jumps cards — each worth upwards of £230,000 — at Cheltenham and Aintree on the next two Sundays.
The growth of Cheltenham’s Open meeting is a phenomenon. It has become a mini-Festival, drawing 70,000 people for an atmosphere second only to the real thing in March. Yet the Sunday crowd is always much the lowest of the three.
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Roughly twice as many attend on the Saturday, despite the cards being comparable in class and prize money. And the Friday, when the racing has hardly hit top gear, comfortably outsells Sunday through its tweedy countryside themes.
If the appearance of the dual champion chaser, and the opposition of Well Chief, in the Connaught Chase puts a few thousand on the gate this week, we will at least know that quality counts for something. The fear, though, is that the British public have decided that Sunday racing is not what was advertised on the tin.
It started only 15 years ago, sparsely and experimentally — initially without betting. Within five years, it became a summer staple and now every Sunday slot through the year is filled. Such blanket coverage appeared to have much to recommend it, commercially, but it has become suffocating in its lack of ambition.
It was never likely to be popular with trainers and stable staff, already keeping the show on the road six days a week and now saddled with the one day when they could normally enjoy some down time. But most would have approached it with enthusiasm if the racing was good and the crowds responsive. Everyone loves a stage.
Instead, too many Sunday venues are now echo chambers, happy to take the Levy money and to count their few hundred families and diehards without worrying overmuch about the end game. In time, even those crowds will dwindle further unless the Sunday product becomes more select and selective.
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Newbury flirted with using Sunday to conclude its Hennessy meeting but quickly gave up the experiment. Chepstow, intriguingly, has shifted the Welsh National from its long-established slot this year because December 27 happens to be a Sunday. No matter how much this was influenced by BBC pressure, it is a depressingly revealing decision.
Most Sundays through the winter, I would rather watch jumping in Ireland, where there is always a high-quality card. Significantly, Sundays in Ireland are also the big paydays for racecourses, with crowds flocking towards assured high standards. Sadly, that may now never be the case in Britain.
Cheltenham has some tricky decisions to take soon. Most notably, it must decide whether the Festival should move forward to embrace the weekend — and, if so, whether the Gold Cup should be run on the Saturday or, as certain influential figures, believe, remain on the Friday.
One thing can be assured. Sunday will have no part to play. The way things are, with the indifference of venues and the apathy of the public, it would probably draw a smaller crowd than Tuesday.
Charm offensive lifts Fortune after Breeders’ Cup snub
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Twelve months ago, this column reacted with sorrow when Jimmy Fortune lost the Breeders’ Cup Classic ride on Raven’s Pass to Frankie Dettori. But there were caveats. Raven’s Pass was owned by the wife of Sheikh Mohammed, who employs Dettori. And Raven’s Pass duly won.
This time around, I can find no such forgiveness regarding the latest ditching of Fortune’s understated talents at America’s self-styled world championship. He had won two group one races on Dar Re Mi this summer and was deprived of another top prize by the French stewards after the Prix Vermeille.
If the owners of the filly, the Lloyd Webber family, blamed Fortune for the minor interference which cost them that race, it sits uncomfortably with their vocal indignation at the demotion. Surely, after such a controversial setback, this was a time for unity, and loyalty to the stable jockey. Instead, they called up Dettori.
Fortune is known within the Flat weighing-room as Mr Reliable — a man who makes good judgments on the track and can be depended upon off it. Among the sometimes precious breed of Flat jockeys, it is hard to think of anyone less worthy of such dismissive treatment.
John Gosden, the trainer, admitted his conversation with Fortune was “not particularly easy” but justified the change purely on the grounds of experience at Santa Anita. As another leading jockey wryly pointed out, any man that can excel around Chester and Epsom is unlikely to be inconvenienced by the Pro-Ride oval in California.
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There was, though, a silver lining, a form of karma. Though Dettori won the Juvenile race on Pounced, another Gosden inmate Fortune had hoped to ride, he was only third in the Turf race on Dar Re Mi. A few hours earlier, Fortune won the last valuable race of the domestic season, the November Handicap. He is far too polite to mention that the name of the horse, Charm School, could be thought apt.