Aries

No time for sentimentality either. Things change and the world is changing at a rapid pace generally. Time to move on.

Spot on 👍🏻 😂

You’re not getting Nicholls at reserve on 5.55 in any scenario, even with Brennan at 1 let alone Freddie! Not in a 37 point league. At the same time, if Noaksey is correct and we’ve gone strength in depth with Brennan at 1, we’re gonna need a far stronger rider at 6 than Jordan Jenkins that’s for sure.

FINALLY, things are drawing to a conclusion on both Ipswich, and Northampton. Now they can release fixtures, and get season tickets on sale.

Is that a reference to Sudden Sam? 😆 If it isn’t then that’s gone over my head. Think the majority do it voluntarily don’t they? Just expenses here and there.

Wonder who the new team manager is. I’d heard Olly Allen was a contender just before Christmas, but others have heard more recently that it could be Peter Adams.

Thank you for that. So everything seems in place, and ready to go. Just waiting on the official announcement.

I was sent a team last night that included Woffinden at number 1. That apparently came from a current team manager up the road! We’ll soon find out.

Emil had “engine” issues the season before too. Started the 2024 season really poorly by his standards. An experienced rider like him can’t be using engines as an excuse though. The fact is, whether age, injury, or both, both riders look to have seen their best days and are on the way down. Take your point about being team players though. Both excellent in that regard. But we have to face the reality that things are now going to feel completely different at Ipswich. Recruitment criteria based on team players and integrating in to the “Ipswich way” may well be a thing of the past. Got to let the new people put their own stamp on things now. It’ll be interesting to see what they do going forward and how they go about things. Louis wanted to significantly increase the banking at Foxhall last winter by lowering the inside but that was shelved when they realised it involved uplifting the drains and came at quite an expense. Maybe the new owners will do that next winter to help improve the racing? Who knows. But it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Nobody expects him to do that. Lawson and Charles Wright are earmarked for Northampton.

Looking at the rider averages for each of the last three seasons on the BSPL website, there is a clear downward trajectory of Doyle and Sayfutdinov which suggests losing them isn’t quite the blow it first seems Doyle 2023- 9.88 GSA 9.24 2024- 10.00 GSA 9.29 (only seven meetings due to season ending injury in May) 2025- 8.69 GSA 7.91 Sayfutdinov 2023- 10.73 GSA 10.07 2024- 9.52 GSA 9.01 2025- 8.75 GSA 8.07 Now you wouldn’t refuse either back, but those stats suggest age and injury has caught up with them. Doyle hasn’t looked the same rider since that season ending crash at Lynn in 2024 and it’s quite an eye opener to see Emil averaging TWO points less last season than his first season here. ironically we finally ended up winning the title when they both had their poorest seasons by some distance!

It’s been mentioned before on this thread but I can’t find it. What is the usual average reduction for missing a full season injured?

No idea why they haven’t sorted the Championship fixtures, but where BSN are concerned (and I’m only speculating), with no top flight TV deal that we know of, they might be in a position to stream Premiership league meetings on top of the Championship and are waiting on confirmation of league structure. Then they can price up their individual, and joint packages and get them out.

Wonder if we’ve managed to sign up a top number 1..

No idea sorry.

I’m with you. As I said before, any other winter and we’d be out and they’d have cracked on without us. The reality is they need us and have no choice but to wait for us. Its been an absolute car crash of a winter.

I don’t think anyone was deliberately trying to mislead anyone or “get away” with anything, appears to have been a genuine oversight so I have to make that clear. Bottom line is a new one is definitely needed for the new season and it’ll put a dent in the new owners wallet right from the get go.

Wasn’t “legal”, mainly due to height allegedly. Oh, and we could be looking at another couple of weeks yet. No joke. A well regarded poster on here was down at the track yesterday removing an air conditioning unit as they’re due to get a brand new VIP box. Pushed for a few answers, and although they stopped short of naming them, said new prospective owners were a “sports entertainment company”. Think we all know who that is.

New air fence is needed so that’s 20k plus for the new owner right off the bat. Apparently the current air fence shouldn’t have been used last year!

Every track in the top flight will take a hit on the attendances they’ve had previously I think that’s a given. It’ll be interesting to see how much of a hit though. The one team that I can see getting away with it to a degree, is Lynn. They now have the top rider in the league which they haven’t had for an awful long time, and the two young lads at reserve should pique their interest. The league set up will please nobody though and it’s been an incredibly damaging winter that has left a bad taste in the mouth that’s for sure.

Perhaps Becker is giving UK a miss, same as Rew. Only two there that I’m confident will be in the line up, are Brennan and King.

Pretty sure King will be there. Godfrey said on the podcast last week that King had been quite vocal about the fact he wouldn’t do one league, and needed two leagues otherwise he’d retire. So he has two clubs he could have signed for. The latest podcast this week, name dropped Riss, Wright, Kerr and Lawson in at Northampton. Nobody else so far. King will be at Ipswich. Louis probably done his mate one last favour before buggering off.

Little difference. I don’t think it’ll happen either but Lambert on 8.00 would be a far better signing than say Fricke on 9.89. Not saying Fricke is a poor signing by Lynn either btw. Just there’s far more scope for an average increase in Lambert’s figure than Fricke’s and that’s the name of the game.