Grass roots races
Great initiative at Didmarton yesterday with a race that was confined to those genuine amateurs that are being sqeezed out of the sport.😒
Interesting to see that todays grassroots race at Larhill was won by a Miss H Palin 😮
Taking the P*$$ or what?
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I think pointing needs to ask itself if it really wants to encourage the genuine armature or continue its evolution into lower level pro racing?
If you work in a professional yard and have aspirations to become a jockey the whole licensing and assessment thing is relatively easy ( and probably tax deductable ) wereas the bar is now set at a level to actively discourage anyone who would just like to have a spin at a few local meetings on their own horse. The powers that be seem convinced that licensed trainers will allocate horses and young jockeys to make up for the ongoing loss of owner/ family riders. But it seems to me that we have already reached saturation point with a substantial percentage of pointers already coming from licensed yards.
I'm sure if there were more races like the one on Saturday it could help in the mid to late season when we are averaging under 30 runners per meeting.