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trying to arrange some trips, book hotels etc for next year (2013) but apart from the festival meetings there doesn’t appear to be a fixture list. anyone any idea when they are likely to appear???
a loser not backed is as good as a winner at evens
Could enlarge this topic to name courses people should go and must avoid?
Must visit: Ascot, Cheltenham, Fontwell, Cartmel, Goodwood & Fakenham
Worth a detour: Hexham, Kelso, Perth, Market Rasen and Ludlow
Avoid: Wolverhampton (although Sat nights are bearable), Redcar, Chester and Ayr (tempted to add York to the list but the racing is good it’s just spoiled by the atmosphere)
Back to the original thread I’ve now planned my racing for next year with 189 meetings planned, taking in all the remaining courses.
Bit harsh on York there Paul – on Juddmonte International day the atmosphere was brilliant. I know the course can have it’s rowdy days (summer Saturdays in the main) but at its best it is one of the great venues.
Avoid: Doncaster, nothing wrong with the level of racing and some of the quality they attract but from a spectators point of view don’t expect to see any action unless you’re over 7ft and have a step ladder with you, an absolute abomination for a viewing pleasure.
Avoid: Doncaster, nothing wrong with the level of racing and some of the quality they attract but from a spectators point of view don’t expect to see any action unless you’re over 7ft and have a step ladder with you, an absolute abomination for a viewing pleasure.
You’ve obviously never been then!
Having had another awful day’s punting there I would add Huntingdon to the list of courses to avoid, as well as any course that stages family fun days aarrgghh
Having had another awful day’s punting there I would add Huntingdon to the list of courses to avoid, as well as any course that stages family fun days aarrgghh
I thought it was a great afternoons racing although I was annoyed with myself that having put up both Overlay and Everdon Brook as paddock positives I didn’t go on and back either of them.
I thought it was a great afternoons racing although I was annoyed with myself that having put up both Overlay and Everdon Brook as paddock positives I didn’t go on and back either of them.
In a similar vein, having advised folk on the radio only a fortnight ago to follow anything Sheena West turns out in October, I forgot to get round to back that advice with my own cold hard cash this afternoon. Two wins for the flame-haired temptress later… (((facepalm)))
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
(tempted to add York to the list but the racing is good it’s just spoiled by the atmosphere)
Think the Sunday meeting there in early September could rehabilitate the course as a racing experience for you, Paul. Went there this month just gone and found it doubtlessly busy, but very pleasant and friendly by York standards as well. Alcohol evident, beer-boy knobheads rather less so. Politely declined the offer of a photo with Peppa Pig, mind…
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
(tempted to add York to the list but the racing is good it’s just spoiled by the atmosphere)
Think the Sunday meeting there in early September could rehabilitate the course as a racing experience for you, Paul. Went there this month just gone and found it doubtlessly busy, but very pleasant and friendly by York standards as well. Alcohol evident, beer-boy knobheads rather less so. Politely declined the offer of a photo with Peppa Pig, mind…
gc
I was at that very meeting Jeremy and I was on the verge of thinking York had finally redeemed itself, as it certainly was not as boozy as usual, that was until it was time to leave.
It was the first time I had driven to York, I usually let the train take the strain.
It took almost 50 minutes to get out of the car park. There was a complete lack of stewarding and the car park seemed to be occupied by selfish, mindless morons who had absolutely no concept of queuing, who think they have some divine right to barge into the queue ahead of those who have been patiently queuing to get out of the car park . Consequently cars were converging on the narrow exits from all directions.
It was exemplified by a 4×4 driven by some foul mouthed slapper who took a circuitous route round the car park to avoid the queuing traffic and then tried to play a game of chicken with me and force her way into the queue in front of me. Having been queuing 45 mins and almost being at the exit there is no way I was going to let her push in. I won the battle but the foul mouthed abuse and invective I was subjected to was almost beyond belief.
The Sunday meeting at York was inaugurated around the turn of the millennium and has been intentionally marketed ever since as a (relatively) downbeat ‘family day’ ‘come racing see what it’s like’ ‘bring a picnic’ sorta thing; it being actively promoted in the run-up by the local rag, The Press which organises (or organised) all sorts of subsidiary hoop-la on-course
I’ve only attended one of the meetings, about six years ago, and as PO and GC corroborate it did have a ‘relaxed’ atmosphere compared to the usual attritive York weekend experience
Same as most Sunday meetings then?
Lest we forget: there used to be a York meeting on the first Wednesday in September (or last one in August) that featured both the Strensall Stakes and Garrowby Stakes, and the Friday of the forthcoming October meeting used to be Thursday: both were similarly ‘relaxed’ and populated by smallish crowds of turfistes. Those were the days one could really appreciate and enjoy well-endowed York
The Saturday meetings at York Racecourse, like York City Centre on every Saturday, are no-go areas for the civilised but are they really much worse than other racecourses and city centres on summer Saturdays?
I rather doubt it
And of the (former) midweek festivals, I always found them tolerable-to-pleasant, Musidora and International days most certainly pleasant, though rather pleased I didn’t brave the throng on ‘Frankel day’ this year
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