Flat season starts at........Catterick!

Well, talk about starting the season off with the origial damp squib! Since when does the Flat season start on a Wednesday at Catterick....how low key can you get? Why couldnt they just let it be and start it as usual with Donny and the Lincoln meeting.If this is how the powers that be want to drum up interest in racing then they must have been taking door to door salesmen lessons off the Boston Strangler! I dont have a tremendous amount of interest in the Flat apart from the better quality stuff,this wont change that outlook.

totally agree

Although I like the flat I don't even consider it really until the Craven meeting at Newmarket.
Aintree dominates until then! I can't cope with the flat and the jumps at the same time.

I used to go the Friday of the Lincoln meeting religiously but then they condensed the three days down to two and now its just pot luck when the Flat starts.I can cope with them both at the same time....i just ignore the Flat!

Yep, i'm with you guys ... Starting the flat at such a low key meeting was really a bit of an own goal by the powers that be, it was a very poor meeting indeed. Why would they have changed from years ago when they started on the Thursday at Doncaster, i can always remember, some decent competitive handicaps on the first day, a minefield of a 2-y-o race also and it was always decent fair. Agree that the real action starts at the Craven meeting and just cannot get too excited about whats on offer beforehand. One thing i do look out for early season though is a trainer to hit the tracks running, it always good to latch onto a stable who can fire out winners from the off, alot of the big boys take a little warming up and i find that looking closely at the likes of Sir Mark Prescott (although the end of August / September is usually when he has his purple patch) or Clive Brittain are ones i like to keep a close eye on. With Brittain winning the Winter Derby on Saturday, i'll be very interested to see how his two runner do at Leicester this afternoon. . . . and yes, i have backed one of them