1984

Don’t worry, it’s not a political debate about the famous book and its relevance to the forthcoming election. Just some comments about a document I’d totally forgotten until I came across it last week.

When I bought the 1984 Sporting Life diary, it came with a small booklet tucked into a pocket on the inside of the back cover, with the title ‘Address and Telephone Directory’. I ignored the original intention and used it to record every detail of my racing expenses – memberships, admissions, racecards, form books etc. The only thing not included was the cost of the daily Sporting Life.

In January I paid for three annual memberships – Cheltenham £70 for 16 meetings, Newbury £55 for 27 meetings and Warwick NH only £29 for 12 meetings. And all of those came with free reciprocal days at other courses. In general, admission to Tattersalls cost between £3.50 and £5 for most meetings, the exceptions being the major festivals. Racecards varied from 30p to 80p.

But even the big meetings, where prices were published in the diary pages covering the courses, the cost wasn’t that much higher. Newmarket for example charged £4.50 for Grandstand admission on the July Course, which was increased to an exorbitant £5 for the three day July meeting! Ascot didn’t quote prices in the diary, but I was there in the main stand for the first and last days of the Royal meeting and that cost me £10 for admission – no advance tickets back then.

At Aintree, Grandstand was £7 for the first two days of the national meeting, £17 for the National. But those weren’t increases on their normal prices – it was a shock to be reminded that in 1984, those three days were the only ones held at Aintree, no other meetings at all.

Other racing items from that year – Timeform Racehorses of 1983 cost £45 and the same later in the year for Chasers and Hurdlers 1983/84. I still have both of those in my library. The Raceform Notebook, a loose leaf booklet with weekly updates, providing comments as well as results, cost £60, the NH equivalent Chaseform was £40.

And the oddest entry in this list of costs, £40.25p for a return helicopter flight from Andoversford to the middle of the racecourse at Cheltenham on Gold Cup day. An interesting experience, but not one I chose to repeat – the turbulence crossing Cleeve Hill about 100 yards above the ground ensured that I have never set foot in a helicopter since.

The last entry is a sad reminder of my mug punting past, recording a betting loss on the year of £1,857, of which only £522 could be blamed on betting tax deductions from winnings.