Thousands of punters, competitive punting and easy to hate – long live the Shergar Cup and Racing League
MATT CHAPMAN Thousands of punters, competitive punting and easy to hate – long live the Shergar Cup and Racing League
ARE you a whinging racing fan? I bet you are!
It's one of the wonders of the modern world how much people love bad news and whinging.
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I've had my fair share of fun at the Shergar Cup - and it's likely some of the 18,000 there on Saturday did too, even if it is doom and gloom for the keyboard warriors
Credit: Getty
Rather than enjoy being alive, most of you will love a good moan.
'It was better in my day,' is an absolute classic.
There will even be one or two of you out there that think YMCA and the Village People was better than Camelphat or Green Velvet. Bonkers the lot of you!
Racing whingers will be whinging over this column soon. You gotta love them.
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Let's take the Shergar Cup and Racing League.
The former is a shadow of what it once was and the riders on Saturday were, in the main, way below the standard required and light years away from those who used to attract a queue of 100 people trying to get an autograph.
We all know that.
But there's not much point getting all bothered about it.
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It's one fixture a year out of the 1460 that were programmed in 2025.
And yet X, formerly known as Twitter, goes into meltdown.
The only real problem for the Shergar Cup comes if trainers and owners don't want to support it. Then the competition is in trouble.
The prize money has to be so good that an owner or trainer can't resist.
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The crowd was about 18,000 at Ascot on Saturday. That's not a peak in an any way but it's more than at most Saturday fixtures.
Let the people who have a good day out have a good day out. It's really not the end of the world is it?
Racing League is easy to hate.
'It's too tricky to find winners and just too competitive,' is the moan from punters!
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Listen to yourselves. Punters in so many ways want to just be handed out cash in the modern era.
If it's not special odds or offers or refunds, it's easy races.
How about we sell it as a tricky event? Something you actually have to think about and work out? Just a thought.
Racing League is six meetings out of the 1460. It really won't change your life.
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And some people like the challenge it poses. Even if you want to whinge about it.
Between the Shergar Cup and Racing League we are talking seven fixtures out of 1460. If that ruins your life then your life is already ruined.
I could easily whinge about the Sprint Final at Windsor tonight, a fixture that I have tried to make special and a bit different over the years on Attheraces.
The 6f contest comes just four days before I have to send two runners into battle for the Racing League on Thursday - where there is a near identical (lower grade and less prize money on Thursday) 6f dash.
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Four of the runners I would have liked to have picked Thursday for London and the South run tonight.
I could of course whinge and say how ridiculous it is. But what's the point? I have to find two runners. It's a challenge.
Long live the Shergar Cup and Racing League.
Right… now you can all have a whinge!
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