Two horse race?
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Its a phrase we all use, but today there is actually a 2 horse race. (Kempton 16:15 but I know it happens quite a lot) Why? I can’t understand why they wouldn’t put some more horses in. Is there a reason? only thing I can think of is if all of the other horses pulled out ages ago and everyone was fully booked? Surely if the horses are being trained and just given an outing wouldn’t they do that “behind closed doors” as it were, or bump the number of runners up to a sensible number?
+0February 10, 2017 at 11:51 am
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£12,000 for first and £3,500 for second. You would think more would have challenged for it instead of giving the money to the pair for nothing.
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cheers fog.
I meant from the view of the racecourse, I fully understand why owners would have a go, and punters for that matter. But it makes no sense to me why a race would even be allowed to run without at least, say, 3 horses. Surely something must have happened to the rest of the field?
Basically the non-favourite can have a leisurely walk round and as long as its rider stays on they pick up £3.5K? Just doesn’t seem to be legit to me.+0If you Google it there was a ‘walkover’ a few yrs ago – ie a one horse race. That had quite a bit about why horses weren’t being entered, but generally the prize money relative to actual cost
+0When I was a bookie in the 80’s, two horse races (or matches as they were called) were relatively common. You’d also get several walkover races every season. All usually on National Hunt races.
The ground on some of the smaller courses could be quite ropey at times and before the animal rights nutters got their way fences were a bit more challenging. It only took a bit of bad weather and horses would be pulled out left right and centre.
I’ve seen some winter cards from some of the northern tracks with 6 races all with less than 4 horses in each of them.
Today the courses are better maintained and drained, so the numbers of match races and walkovers seem to have lessened
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thanks for the info guys, so its basically because horses get pulled out. makes sense.
I was interested to read that in the 18th-century Eclipse won 9 races by walkover because the other trainers pulled their horses out thinking they had no chance and in those days, as there was no prize for 2nd or 3rd, there was literally nothing in it for them.
I’ve often wondered if sportsmen have something written into their contracts saying “you must compete at all times or you can do one” to stop the going home at half time if its all going wrong. Adrian Lewis and Sol Campbell both spring to mind.
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The 14:40 at Leicester today is a 2 horse race
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