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There is a delicate balance here – certainly at most midweek meetings larger crowds are needed and reducing prices could be the answer.
However reducing costs at weekend and Bank Holiday meetings may produce additional problems and the infrastructure at some courses could not cope with the increased numbers.
Going back to Windsor this afternoon – yes a good crowd but it took 45 minutes from my arriving back at my car to actually getting out of the course – and that was setting off 30 minutes after the last race.
And that is by no means the worse experience I have had – Newton Abbot and Perth are two particularly nasty escapes that spring immediately to mind. The forner shares an exit roundabout with a very busy Tesco store and one of the main roads out of town – a great combination when the last race coincides with rush hour.
No complaints from the point to point contingent, plenty of meetings which is where im heading today on a lovely sunny day, witton beer tent here we come!!!!!
Beat me to the punch, Katy! Rules racing’s loss is increasingly very much pointing’s gain on this particular Bank Holiday weekend.
The crowd wasn’t huge at Hackwood Park yesterday but respectable nonetheless, and certain of my colleagues who were elsewhere reported sizeable attendances. I was at Ashorne’s Bank Holiday Monday evening meeting this week last year, and the place was packed to the rafters – I expect it was more of the same yesterday.
How was Witton, Katy? I’ve driven past it en route to Hexham a couple of times, but have never got there on raceday.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
It all balances out – the next Bank Holiday has a distinct Northern bias
Carlisle and Cartmel are clashing again on Whit Monday, aren’t they? Can’t believe it’s that much in the interests of the former to take on the latter, different codes of racing notwithstanding.
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.
And that is by no means the worse experience I have had – Newton Abbot and Perth are two particularly nasty escapes that spring immediately to mind. The forner shares an exit roundabout with a very busy Tesco store and one of the main roads out of town – a great combination when the last race coincides with rush hour.
Agreed. My visit to Abbot last August was for one of its lesser Monday meetings rather than the Mildmay Festival later that month, and it still took forever to escape the site.
It being a relatively urban track, you don’t really have the same opportunity to delay your departure pleasantly by taking a nice walk around the fields and forests, as I did when visiting Perth a few years back.
Conversely, for all that its location is hardly conducive to it, Cartmel is one of the easiest tracks in the country from which to make a clean getaway, with the traffic being dispersed and filtered through the network of little lanes back to the A590 to very good effect. Who’d have thunk it!
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.
Towcester is free entry all year – No idea if there are plans to change that – apart from boxing day and easter. It’s always packed.
According to a little piece in the Howard Wright page of the Post a few months back, Towcester’s profits – from both the corporate side of things and refreshments on racedays – remain healthy enough for the free entry policy to remain for the rest of this year and probably beyond that, too.
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.
Conversely, for all that its location is hardly conducive to it, Cartmel is one of the easiest tracks in the country from which to make a clean getaway, with the traffic being dispersed and filtered through the network of little lanes back to the A590 to very good effect. Who’d have thunk it!
gc
My turn to agree with you there, theoretically it should be an absolute nightmare to escape from – although escape is probably totally the wrong word in the case of Cartmel – yet is it one of the best organised, free flowing departures you can find.
It is a great pity that other courses cannot work closely with their appropriate Constabulary and effect an easier escape plan.
It was a lovely day Jeremy, helped by the weather and probably because Newcastle was abandoned. You’v probably missed your chance to visit as, if rumours are true, that was the last meeting
which is a great shame espec as its within walking distance for me. I think we’re off to Easingwold next week? i’v not looked at fixtures to see whats on so forgive me if im wrong. Then the big Yorkshire end of season fundraiser, BBQ and dancing the night away, woo i 
pointing!!!I’v been told to add u to my facebook theres loads of pics on there of the day, so i’ll go and look for u now!!!
Kt
That’s the end for Witton, Katy? What a pity, and a pox on my house for not visiting more points when I still lived in Yorkshire (in mitigation I was utterly ******* skint at the time, though).
That’s one of the joys and pains of pointing, isn’t it – enjoying new courses when they appear, mourning old ones when they close. I never got to Mollington before its demise last year, either, though I believe a new course for the Grafton (held very successfully at Guilsborough this year, Amicelli and all!) has been devised near Brackley and may be operational next season.
Pointing is definitely leaving Market Rasen, though, with a new course having been created within sparrow’s fart of the old Lincoln racecourse. That should be easy to get to.
Re: Easingwold – I’ve been there twice and am more of a fan of the unfeasibly generous hog roasts (the best I’ve ever had anywhere on the planet) than the racing, truth be told!
I wonder which reprobate told you to add me to Facebook! I should be easy to find – look for the profile photo of a clown in an anorak witlessly strangling an incredibly tolerant Quixall Crossett…
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.
Has the Easingwold meet already taken place (27th April?).
I must try and get there at some time in the future and coincide it with a trip home.
Wetherby on Thursday and I really hope this problem with the ground gets sorted ASAP.I’m not certain Jeremy, as its just what I heard yesterday. The Castle and grounds have been sold and the new owner is trying to do it up as a big posh events centre and caravan site, mind you he’ll have a struggle judging by the pikeys that normally stay there!!!! They’ve already lost the horse trials (great shame as most of the top riders appeared and its a lovely course) and the biker rally. It will be a massive shame as its a great viewing course, u can see the whole track from the hillside bar behind the trees on the back straight, our horse went into them 3rd place and didnt come out the other side grrrr!!!
I’ve looked at fixtures and it is next sat, then another at Wadeys the week after which will probably be on the cards and I think that’ll be us for the year. GD – Easingwold was on last weekend and its next weekend aswell, its the Bilsdale this time.
I’ll look forward to the hog roast, with any luck it’ll be the same one thats at the end of season party
So it is.I am easily confused!
I don’t go back home until Sunday,tempting to go as I would like to sample a p-t-p." The Castle and grounds have been sold and the new owner is trying to do it up as a big posh events centre and caravan site, mind you he’ll have a struggle judging by the pikeys that normally stay there!!!!"
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FFS." The Castle and grounds have been sold and the new owner is trying to do it up as a big posh events centre and caravan site, mind you he’ll have a struggle judging by the pikeys that normally stay there!!!!"
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FFS.You’ve obviously never been…. a group of lads in their rockies, and burberry with their trousers tucked into thier socks sure got some right funny looks off the horsey set thats for sure.
Easingwold was on last weekend and its next weekend aswell, its the Bilsdale this time.
That’ll be the same Bilsdale with whom Ted Caine’s string hunts. Here’s hoping a few of his charges make an appearance this weekend…
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.
Aw, bless!
Ta for that, GD.
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.
which is a great shame espec as its within walking distance for me. I think we’re off to Easingwold next week? i’v not looked at fixtures to see whats on so forgive me if im wrong. Then the big Yorkshire end of season fundraiser, BBQ and dancing the night away, woo i 
pointing!!!
FFS.
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