The traditional opening to the flat season, the Lincoln meeting at Doncaster, took place last weekend to officially start flat racing for 2026. But if you take a look at the racing calendar this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

The Lincoln kicked us off, with two days on Saturday and Sunday, a newly introduced schedule to give Doncaster two weekend dates.

It was a thrilling two days, with Urban Lion winning the Lincoln and really setting the season up nicely thanks to an incredibly tight finish in that race, and plenty of other close finishes over the two days.

But in the aftermath, there’s five days without any turf flat racing, the next scheduled meeting comes on Saturday, with Musselburgh hosting a strong day of racing. It then becomes a lot more structured, with racing on most days afterwards.

Is that enough though? Should we really have a week between the first and second meetings of the year for flat racing fans to endure? Appetite is high, for me at least, and I want something to fill the gap I’ve currently got.

Not Fair on Flat or Jump Racing

I’m looking at this from the angle of flat racing and not having enough in the calendar for fans and those involved to really get going and use the momentum gained from the Lincoln meeting.

But of course, there’s another side too. I also don’t think this is fair on those involved in jump racing. At the minute, we’ve got very little appetite for jumps action.

The season is almost at an end, and we’re in that awkward period between two big weeks, the Cheltenham Festival and the Aintree Grand National meeting. The weights are out for the Grand National and for most jumps fans, the countdown is on, with little focus on other racing.

My appetite for turf flat racing right now is pretty much at the highest it will be all season, while my appetite for jumps racing is at its lowest.

I’ll happily admit that not everyone will feel like me, but I’m sure there will be plenty of people who do.

I’ve no data to back things up, but my gut feeling is that the calendar leads to less people attending, fewer watching and of course, that all results in a smaller betting turnover.

What’s the Solution?

I’m not going to sit here and say we should create some flat meetings for this week, because the last thing to sport needs is more racing, we already have too much.

But I don’t think it would take much to ask some courses if they fancied a switch around of their meetings.

This could bring two or three flat meetings forward, closer to the Lincoln and to cover the current gap we have, while pushing some jumps racing further back.

There would also be the option of pushing back all weather racing if needed, to prevent the jumps fixture list from changing, as we’ve had afternoon all weather racing this week.

While it is still flat racing, I think there’s way more interest in turf racing, and an appetite for that now, instead of the all weather action we’ve been watching over the winter.

Do I expect change to happen? No I don’t. But there’s definitely a lull happening right now, which could easily be filled if we had a couple of turf flat meetings brought forward. Give us something to look forward to after the Lincoln, without having to wait a week for it.