Fields
I was reading the other day comments by one of the few racing journalists still operating in this Country, saying he was disappointed that race fields couldn’t be finalised by Wednesday morning, for a race meeting the following Sunday. The situation was described as ‘messy’.
For someone with apparently so much knowledge of the game, it’s pretty obvious that he has little idea of how the fields are assembled, and how many facets there are involved. When there are say, five meetings over the course of a weekend, as there are this week, to have them all up and finalised in maybe one and a half days is nigh on impossible. Or perhaps the gentleman concerned would be happier if things were rushed through, only to discover that there were errors with the final result, and they have to be redrawn. That’s what I would describe as ‘messy’, if not incompetent.
By the time nominations are closed, although these days it is almost inevitable that that time is extended for some if not all races, handicaps are sorted out, connections change their minds about what race is suitable for their charges, withdrawals are taken, along with numerous other fiddly aspects of finalising fields, these people generally do a fantastic job, and to criticise them for not doing it faster to suit one individual, is pretty ignorant.
Maybe a day with a Club secretary in a part of the Country where there are a lot of horses (even on the rare occasions when there are too many for the number of races programmed), might be a good idea.
Pete Cook