We come to the end of the British flat racing season this weekend with the traditional closer, the November Handicap at Doncaster. It will be the last race on the card, but you can’t help but feel that it’s time for a change.

I’ve nothing against Doncaster hosting the finale or the November Handicap being the last race of the season, but we’ve stumbled our way to the meeting, in my opinion, just as we do every year.

The highs of the Arc meeting at Longchamp, Champions Day at Ascot, not before that, the St Leger at Doncaster, three big weekends of flat racing, where fans were fully engaged with the flat action and really enjoying it.

Since then? We’ll it’s been pretty tough to watch on occasions. Low-quality racing, small fields, bad ground causing plenty of non-runners, the excitement from those three big events feels like a long time ago.

Flat Season Dragging On for Too Long

I don’t think anyone has enjoyed flat racing for the past couple of weeks. People are ready for it to be over, and many I know are already in “jumps mode”.

It feels like that part of the football season where we are coming to the end, and there’s plenty of teams with nothing to play for, so essentially playing glorified friendlies.

The racing season should hit you hard finish strongly and go out with a bang. We’ve got the first bit right, to a certain extent, and we’ve got plenty of big key weekends near the end of the season. But rather than calling it a day a little earlier and aligning the season end with those big events, we have the two or three-week period we’ve just gone through, where no one is really that interested, and we’re all waiting for the inevitable.

What Could a Revised Season End Look Like?

I’m not a fan of what we have right now. For me, the flat season should end before Cheltenham has their first meeting over the jumps, as it’s a time when many people lose focus and switch.

It should definitely not clash with a big jumps day, like we have this year, as Aintree host their Grand Sefton over the Grand National obstacles on Saturday.

We have the ability to make this a lot better, but once again, I suspect racing just isn’t being agile enough and not wanting change.

Imagine a flat season that ended on Champions Day or ended with the St Leger in a new October date. We would go out with a bang, regardless of the early jumps meetings taking place, flat racing would still take centre stage.

I’m definitely for moving the final day of the season forward a few weeks, even if it’s just a couple, it would ensure the final day of the flat season is run before the first day of the new Cheltenham season, which, while not being the official start of the jumps, is for many people.

We’ve seen racing be brave and try to do something different over the summer with a team angle, though the Racing League may not be around much longer, now it’s time to try something a little different.

Yes, some racecourses would lose a meeting here and there. But given the fact we seem to be continuing the push of too much summer racing, I’m sure a compromise of losing a low-quality, cold and wet midweek fixture at the end of October or start of November is one that would be considered.

There’s so much more we could do if racing wants to, but once again, we’ve got a battle between being traditional and sticking to what we’ve always done and being a little different, thinking outside of the box, and trying something new.

The former almost always wins the battle. And it’s probably why racing isn’t truly going anywhere right now, only in small areas.

The flat season will finally come to an end at Doncaster on Saturday. Nothing against them, but I’d have much rather seen the finish two weeks ago when we were all still engaged with the flat side of racing.