Why are horse racing fields getting smaller ? - The reasons and solutions.
How may punters have booked a day off work and looked forward to a day at the races,only to be disapointed and a little annoyed when seeing the decimated card for the first time.
Shall I go or not ? - probably not.
The average punter does not want to bet on 3,4 or 5 runner races - some trainers and owners might love it,as winning is easier,and place money guaranteed,but it is a turn off for most punters,whether racegoers,betting shop or online players.
So why are fields so small ?.
Firstly,and i think almost everyone,except the racing authorites know there are far,far too many meetings.
More,more,more actually converts into less,less eventually.
Overloading punters with too many meetings leads to apathy.
Personally,i bet most days,but hardly ever on horse racing now.
It is now impossible to have an opinion on form - too may meetings (grass),all weather racing and summer jumping all clash to confuse average punter.
It is possible for a horse to appear in all 3 above formats over a short time.
How (unless you are prepared to spend hours studying form)are you supposed to make sensible selection of bets ? - well you can't - you are just guessing.
I remember,many years ago,a representative of a leading bookmakers saying on tv they wanted more and more racing as it spreads out their liabilites,and also said we want racing to work like a roulette wheel - non stop action and short gaps between races.
They achieved that to the detriment of horse racing fans.
Why have 7 or 8 races at most meetings ?.
For decades horse racing had 6 races per meeting.
Now for some reason some tracks seem to consider the more races the better,but most punters don't want extra races,just 6 decent races to bet on.
.....
6 races is ideal.
Arrive an hour before the first,have a drink and something to eat.Enjoy the racing,then spend another half hour after the last celebrating your wins,or trying to cheer yourself up after a losing day.
About 5 hours at the track - perfect.
If 6 races was adopted by all tracks,this in itself would help to boost field sizes - again its more more more,and counter productive in the end.
Another example of the more and more approach,but only resulting in loss of interest is the National Lottery.
It was very popular when there was just a Saturday draw - it was so popular it had its own TV show with the draw made live.
Then Wednesday draw was introduced and other games added.Don't know about you,but I stopped playing when Wednesday draw was introduced,and many people have told me the same thing.
Closer to home,the Scoop 6 bet.Crescendo of interest to Saturday bet.
Then it was introduced every day for the big meetings.
Saturday Scoop 6 pools are ok,but take a look at those daily Scoop 6 bets.
The pools are very low,and demonstrates again that punters don't want to bet every day on Scoop 6 as bet units are quite high at 2 pounds.
However if you really want to experience absolute bedlam,take a visit to your local betting shop.
Despite those extra meetings,they also broadcast cartoon horse races,daily draws,greyhound races and lots more ( never go in a betting shop these days,so not sure what else they offer their clients ).
I am absolutely sure this approach by the bookmakers has driven out far more punters than it attracts through the door.
Will they racing authorites ever solve the paucity of runners and too many meetings ? - don't bet on it !.
By Pendil at SAFE BOOKMAKERS SITES.©This article can be reproduced by anyone,so long as article is reproduced full and intact with all links unchanged.End of article.
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