Good question and I’m sorry I can’t shed light on it…but I’ll give you a Star as original!

were not having a carnival this year

Football matches are ‘postponed’ because it is highly likely they will be played again at some point because things need to be kep ’straight’ in the leagues.

Horse racing is ‘abandoned’ because it is less likely that that particular string of horses will be able to meet again and there is not a ‘leaderboard’ in racing.

when anything is postponed it means that it will be rescheduled for another time.when something is abandoned as in horse racing the race is not rescheduled for a later date.

It is very difficult to reschedule a whole days worth of horseracing. Following an abandonment Race Planning will reschedule any major races to be run later the same week, but this will usually be at a different course that is already scheduled to hold a race meeting.

The racing calendar is very full and the season is planned months in advance. For example, at the moment the Race Planning Department will be finalising the schedule for the autumn/winter for 2007.

Unless it is a big or important race that can be rescheduled with the same quality of runners it will be abandoned - with another meeting not made possible. A big race maybe re-run at the same course, if conditions allow, but may not be suited at another course. For example if the Grand National was to be rescheduled, it would not be the same if it was run at Sandown rather than Aintree. Some bigger races have been run at other courses.

Football matches are more important for the final league tables. This criteria does not have to be met in racing.

Sometimes it is not worth rescheduling a race meeting if the interest is low anyway i.e a small meeting at a smaller course like Cartmel. Abandonment is the easiest and cheapest option.