Is this a "toe in the door" by the ARC who want to run Friday twilight meetings over the summer? They have made no secret of the fact they desire this which no doubt would be directed at the Corporate Market. And the largely Thoroughbred orientated (and run) racing board will no doubt go along with this and direct the ATC to move meetings to either Thursday, Saturday (most likely) or Sunday daytime.
The only real positive with this new Thoroughbred initiated dates proposal is that it gives Cambridge the option of racing either Thursday nights or Sunday afternoons and looking at the lack of attendances at present, one would hope they opt for Sunday, especially over the winter months and hope that this will halt this problem. It"s all very well to say the clubs exist on off course turnover which may be a band aid solution but looking at at the sharp decline in turnovers this outlook looks to have already kicked in because unless people are introduced to the sport to the point of them showing enough interest to go to a TAB or attend on course, the interest will continue to wane and consequently turnovers.
And watch out for the Thoroughbreds with their increase in exporting their races to sooner rather than later want a revue of clause 16.