Been through this before. But I like chatting about it.:encouragement:
1. The Mares hurdle and Chase on trials day is a good idea, and mares novice hurdle I'd add. This is also good as their is not really a major mares race at Dublin, aside from a handicap hurdle and bumper race,.
So get rid of all three and run them on trials day (with a bonus offered for winning again at the festival). :encouragement:
2. Bumper limited to 5 year olds. :encouragement: encourage more to go hurdling earlier so we see those go chasing earlier etc etc
3. Remove both mid trip novice races and make them 0-145 handicaps instead, for novices only.
4. Make all other handicaps for non novices.
5. Lose the Martin Pipe as it effectively would be the new novice hurdle handicap at 2m 4f.
Lose the NH chase altogether. No longer a good race as not enough qualify or enter.
6. To replace the NH chase - Make a new race for veteran chasers over 3m 6f, with qualifying criteria of 10 or above and horses with festival records (i.e must have finished placed at a previous festival), could also be amateur riders. This would also please the safety squad. Nice Nostalgia for festival goers also.
I think that would mean we are 4 races down, so could go 6 per day.
My most revolutionary idea which was very popular last time :glee: was to also make the festival a 2 x weekender, with the festival held over 2 weekends in March,
And if the races were spaced properly this would allow some of the really good novices to go for the older generation the week after if they fancied it.
This would maximise exposure for the sport and prolong the interest as the build up to weekend one and then the following week towards weekend 2 would boost coverage and interest by a lot.
Could be Friday/Saturday both weekends so that they can get some corporate monies.
Not ideal for 4 day festival goers granted, but that's just 60k people per day (and probably less than half of those will have travelled far for the full 4 days), So maybe 30k people inconvenienced, compared to the TV audiences gained then that's minimal.
And some might like a few rest days off the guinness anyway.
Be better for the groundsman and potential rescheduling also.
And the town would benefit even more.
