Racing off the 2020 calendar
THERE will be no horse racing at L’Ancresse next year.
Big financial worries – the Guernsey Race Club lost £8k this year – the 2020 VE Day celebrations and falling attendances have convinced the organisers that giving the event a rest for one year is the best move.
In announcing the decision, GRC president Trevor Gallienne slammed the growing number of people who deliberately avoid paying at the gate which, this May, saw a disappointingly low number legitimately enter.
‘You wouldn’t believe the number of people who are prepared to climb through gorse to avoid paying. There are so many who don’t want to pay £10 for a half-day’s entertainment.
‘But they will be the first to ask why there is no racing,’ said Gallienne.
Only three years ago the GRC lost its annual meeting to bad weather, a cancellation which cost the club in excess of £10,000.
Since then, the loss of a major sponsor and the need to provide self-sponsorship for two of the five races on the card in 2019 has further weakened their financial position.
But the decision is not all about money, said Gallienne.
‘The May Day bank holiday adjustment from Monday 4 May to Friday 8 May to take in the VE Day celebrations was another reason. We could have gone ahead on the new date but felt we shouldn’t do anything that would detract from the VE Day 75th anniversary celebrations.’
Gallienne said the club committee had not rushed into a decision.
‘We knew about a month ago we probably would cancel but the committee reached the decision only this Tuesday,’ he said yesterday.
‘We plan to maintain the course and we are not just going to just walk away from it and we want to keep it at a level so we can use it in 2021.’
The club hopes that the break will once again fire the interest in racing, just as it did when it returned after many years away in the early 2000s.
But Gallienne said it was getting ever more difficult to finance a meeting when every competing horse has to be brought in at its cost.
‘There is sadly now not one horse trained in Guernsey. Our costs are spiralling all the time and there has also been an increase in the prize money in lower-grade racing in the UK. We can’t compete with that.’
