WHAT EXACTLY IS PREMIERISATION?

Sky Sports Racing’s correspondent ponders one of the great questions facing racing at the moment

- ROBERT COOPER

HOW did we do? Rarely a day passes without some business requesting feedback (positive of course), whether it is the delivery of a small jar of moisturiser (my secret is out) or a paddling pool (not arrived yet).

Sometimes there is a potential reward for wasting ten minutes of your life; a newspaper I read dangled the carrot of a £25 gift voucher if I answered a few questions. I had 95% completed the ordeal when a bolt of lightning and a huge clap of thunder knocked out the power for a few minutes, and I was back to square one, all my precious information eternally lost. Of course I then surrendered to the elements and sloped off to chat to my tomatoes.

I wouldn’t have minded spending a few minutes on a survey coordinated by the Horserace Bettors Forum. It revealed from those questioned via Twitter and other sporting media that 65.7% of those quizzed, ‘strongly or somewhat strongly’ agreed that there were too many race meetings on a Saturday. A prime example of this is fast approaching, namely Saturday July 15 – Crazy Saturday – when it’s July Cup day at Newmarket, the Johns Smith’s Cup at York and the Summer Mile at Ascot and these top quality races are run within minutes of each other.

Heaven knows how, on the same afternoon, you’ll find time to absorb, let alone bet on, the City Plate at Chester, as racing goes bananas. It’s the zaniest example of diluting standalone top races, but sadly not the only one. Rather than slump, confused and irritated in front of my TV watching this indigestible equine platter unravel, I have decided to head to Newmarket on a “busman’s” where I can absorb one of my favourite days in relative peace and tranquillity. Maybe that’s the plan – go racing.