What do you love about racing?

[jayalexander]

I was asked this question a few years ago in an interview and I clearly wasn't ready for it, as I gave a crap answer and didn't get the job - but now I know what it is that I love; the characters! In what other sport do you get characters like Mick Easterby or up-and-coming jockeys getting more exposure on the box than established names? They can be so accessible, too. Just the other week, myself and Robertof spoke with Richard Hills at Newmarket. I doubt former stars from other sports would be as accommodating. I love a winner as much as the next punter, but as long as you're not relying on grabbing a 1st as you're only means of income, there's got to be something else that attracts you to raving, surely? Sent from my GT-I9100 using PL Forum

[Trotter]

Re: What do you love about racing? I'm definitely in the 'crossword puzzle' camp where I enjoy solving a puzzle and look upon a race as a challenge to sort out the clues, assess the evidence and find the answer I look upon it as an intellectual exercise and that's what I enjoy I don't really enjoy 'characters'. I tend to think they just trot out clichés and trite answers..........I'll often flick over if someone is being interviewed........:unsure

[Aidymac]

Re: What do you love about racing? At the moment, nothing :loon Banging in winners for all of the jumps season, can't even find one in this muck flat.. Roll on the end of the summer, fast. #flatismuck

[BillyHills]

Re: What do you love about racing? Big question? For me its a sport where you can never stop learning. I get bored with anything that i exhaust completely and left one or two perfectly good jobs for that reason alone. I need to have something to research or try to understand and Racing gives me that all the time on a daily basis. I differ to Trotter in that i try and listen to interviews, especially from trainers and the little programmes on Racing Uk 'This Racing Life' i find fascinating. The episode where Willoughby went to Olly Stevens yard was classic and even todays prog about Ruth Carr was eyeopening and learnt something i didn't know, even at my age!! (Don't know if you saw it Jay but it also featured a stud farm up in Yorkshire) For anyone who hasn't been to a stable visit i urge you to try one, you will think differently about Racing. Its much more than a crossword puzzle in the Racing Post but then again i'm not in the sport because of betting or just to pass the time of day. I think if i was a gambler i'd be looking elsewhere to make a profit and could name half a dozen easier sports to make money than horse racing - at least! Jay is right about access to people in racing too. Just last night i was chatting to an owner on social media about his horse who i hadn't seen for ages and been searching the entries. He was very kind and told me he had took it out of training to rethink his strategy on what to do next with the horse. I suspect paying £600 a week plus expenses to keep a horse in training is not much fun if you cant see anything coming back. Theres so much more to this sport and thats what i love about it. P.S. Aidy, its not the flat thats the problem, your falling into the same boat i was in last year. You have to write articles on the feature races, which are the hardest races and because you have researched them you buy into them and you feel bound to follow the selections where in fact you may not have even looked at those races in the first place. I ended up never backing anything i wrote about.

[Aidymac]

Re: What do you love about racing? Very true Graham, I think you are right there. Getting back to why I love the sport, I never answered that. For me, it is for the fairytale stories. I nearly shed a tear when Hunt Ball won at the Cheltenham Festival, it was such an amazing story throughout the year how a horse can go from winning a Class 6 muck race at somewhere like Fontwell, to competing in a Grade 1 for a small trainer. For me I think it is all about characters, Mick Easterby had me in tears laughing when I was watching C4 yesterday after Aetna won the race. He is a proper old-fashioned, hard working man, not afraid to put his money down and I was thrilled for him. It is moments like that why I love racing. I don't get the same feeling when Nicholls, Mullins or Henderson win a big pot because they win so much.

[joeblitz]

Re: What do you love about racing? From a betting point of view - winning (though that isnt going well just now). I enjoy the buzz and the battle between the bookies and myself. The spectacle itself is good but even better when you have money on. To be honest I am in it to win so it is purely from a gambling point of view!

[Jimmy2shoes]

Re: What do you love about racing? Watching a horse that's done sweet FA bolt in on the bridle, makes me chuckle and lets me see just what mugs we are at times, still makes me smile.

[robertob]

Re: What do you love about racing? Nothing better than a horse looming strongly on the bridle around the 2f marker and putting a race to bed with a nice turn of foot... Paco Boy in the Lockinge Stakes a couple of years ago must have been the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in racing. That's what I love about racing. The speed, the pace, the beauty of the thoroughbred... clearly I'm a flat man and while I enjoy the big jump races too, the speed of the flat is what I love and it doesn't really matters too much for me if it is a low grade handicap on the All-Weather or a Group 1 - the beauty of the sport is always visible. However the big Group 1's, the excitement before those races, like the 2.000 Guineas this year, or the 2009 Arc... that's the moments I admire and they make this sport so special for me. Betting is a completely different kettle of fish. It's a much more rational approach towards it and while it is great to have winners and can be here and there emotional, I try to distinguish between the betting and the love for the sport, and keep emotions out of the betting, otherwise I would find it follow it when having a bad time betting wise... but that says I just can watch racing without having a bet and can enjoy it just because it can be a spectacular sport to watch. I mean why to we watch races from the past over and over again, talking about former stars like Franke, Sea The Stars etc. with glowing eyes? Not because we had bets on them, but because they delivered unforgettable moments an true emotions...

[santos_]

Re: What do you love about racing? I had always had a fascination with horse racing since I can remember when I was younger I always used to look forward to the Grand National and having my small bet on and the sense of excitement and nervousness when watching it always just interested me but it wasn't until about 2008 that I seriously got into racing other then just watching the big races. After watching more and more racing I was always looking for an advantage or angle and god knows how many hours I have spent going over results/videos trying to find patterns etc that can give you a upper hand. I have always been interested in trying to come up with new systems and trying to think outside the box so I've tried plenty but it was from watching racing more and more that I started to know my strength's and weaknesses and when I started doing my own ratings that when I really got hooked in the results side of racing. One thing that annoys me when you tell people who don't follow racing at all that you love horse racing is that they automatically say oh so you like gambling then? but I love racing for the sport and spectacle and I can happily watch racing and enjoy it without a penny on a race. I love watching these race horses and seeing just what supreme athletes a race horse is and the big meetings the spectacle is great to watch. But I would say I'm a fan of racing and not just into it because I'm looking to make money (but it's always a nice bonus!)

[Blazing Bailey]

Re: What do you love about racing?

I'm definitely in the 'crossword puzzle' camp where I enjoy solving a puzzle and look upon a race as a challenge to sort out the clues, assess the evidence and find the answer I look upon it as an intellectual exercise and that's what I enjoy

Im with Trotter. I like being right and when the reward for being right is money it also helps :). For me it isnt always about having a bet either, I can take just as much enjoyment out of culminating a theory as to why I shouldnt back a horse as to when I find an angle which means I should back a horse. I do like the characters too and little moments like McCoys celebration on Dont Push It, James Best's reaction on Return Spring when he pretty much burst into tears after crossing the line or pretty much every time Henderson has a big runner/winner at Cheltenham and he is a bundle of nerves and excitement. I could also listen to John Gosden talk for hours and hours about racing because he has forgotten far more than I will ever know!

[Sheerluck Holmes]

Re: What do you love about racing? Some great stuff on here. This is something I wrote for my blog which I'm starting ... sort of along the lines of the above ... I was born within a stones throw of the Knavesmire, home of York racecourse – one of the country’s finest flat race courses. As a nipper, my dad, and sometimes my grandad would often take me for walks around the vast expanse of green grass and the miles of straight white rails, overlooked by the huge grandstands. Once or twice, our walks would coincide with a race day and we would stand near to the old Tyburn – the site of the gallows where Dick Turpin and hundreds of others met their demise at the end of the hangman’s rope – and watch the exhilarating scene of horses and their jockey’s breaking from the stalls (at what I now know to be the 1m6f start). Despite this early introduction to the world of horse racing, all though my school and college life I never really had more than a passing interest in the sport, and would generally only really pay anything resembling attention on Grand National day, and perhaps when the Epsom Derby got a few column inches or segments on the news. Infact, I left it until the last year of my teens until I struck my very first bet on the horses. I can remember it vividly. It was in a Ladbrokes shop on Percy Street in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where I was at University. One October afternoon, a friend and I had a bit of time to kill before meeting some friends for some beers to celebrate my 19th birthday, so on our way to the pub, we went into the bookies. I can’t remember the actual reasons why we went into the shop that day, it wasn’t raining, and my friend certainly wasn’t a gambler. I also can’t remember why we decided to both have £5 on Red Guard in the 3.50 at Fontwell, but we did, and Red Guard, trained by Josh Gifford and ridden by Philip Hide …. won by a length at 7/2. The die was cast. Red Guard had piqued my interest and as the months and years passed, I started to, slowly but surely, get more and more interested in horse racing, finding myself buying the Racing Post, attending race meetings, reading around the subject and trying to select horses based on more than just nice silks and good names. Which sort of leads me, in a roundabout way, to the here and now, an avid horse racing fan, writing this nonsense on the internet, a decade and a half or so since Red Guard did the business at Fontwell.

[erhaab1965]

Re: What do you love about racing? I enjoy seeing the smaller trainers and owners succeed. It puts a smile on my face when I see a lesser known jockey like Saleem Golam or Danny Tudhope win a race especially a big televised Saturday afternoon race. I said a couple of years ago that David O'Mera was destined to become a top 20 trainer. Last year he proved me right just creeping into the top 20, at one point he was in the top 10. This is a great achievement, from memory, I think he achieved this with no Group race success, all the other had won Group races. I have a feeling he will once again get in the top 20, but this year he will have a Group winner. He's already attracted several big owners, it's just a matter of time before some of the Middle Eastern owners send him some decent horses.

[bully3061]

Re: What do you love about racing? I enjoy solving the puzzle by using stats and form to find what i hope is a value bet and let the winners take care of themselves. Sites such as this one have helped me understand how others approach there study and i certainly wouldn't be where i am today with out such forums where i've picked up bits and pieces. Away from betting i quite simply like racing as it's never over until it's over. You cant beat seeing a horse stand off a fence and clear it leaving you wondering how the heck we cleared that one. Certainly agree with seeing the smaller yards/under dog every now and then finding a good one and proving that they are just as competent given the right ammo.