- This topic has 16 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 1 month ago by
.
- Posts
Are attendances at race meetings published? As someone who is always drawn to the more mundane, low-key elements of life, I’d be fascinated to know how many people attend a run-of-the-mill AW meeting at Southwell on a Monday or Wolverhampton on a Thursday evening. That’s not to decry them in any way as I’d much rather a quiet, midweek card with genuine racegoers, just that I’m fascinated to know how small a crowd could be at one of these meetings. I’ve specifically picked out these tracks due to the amount of meetings they host – thereby losing the originality element – although it may be that some of the smaller “gaff” tracks on natural turf sometimes get equally low turnouts.
Football Clubs publish attendances – you even see attendance league tables – but not race meetings.
Draw your own conclusions as to why this is.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Interesting to see the Wolverhampton Monday afternoon numbers were still averaging the 340 mark – we used to joke we could be on first name terms with all the punters at Wolves on a Monday afternoon.
Wolves was always a schizophrenic course for me ….. Monday afternoons used to be a lively as a morgue yet the Saturday evening meetings used to have an amazing atmosphere.
I always take attendance figures with a massive pinch of salt …… having spent some afternoons and evenings working in control rooms at football / rugby stadia I know for a fact the published “attendance” figures are always higher than the real figures, sometimes by a couple of thousand. One reason is all season ticket holders are included in the figures, whether they actually attend the game or not, even the number of staff working on site is included in the figures. I had to give the number of ambulance crews / first aiders at each game and they were included in the numbers …. maybe technically correct but still ambiguous when you consider the number of catering / security staff on site at larger stadia.
Quality link, Drone.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Definitely a quality link. Going to plough through it to find the lowest recent attendance, Covid-notwithstanding. The winner so far is Southwell for a flat meeting on Friday 2 March, 2018, where only 79 people (and 4 bookies) were in attendance. Conversely (and interestingly), a crowd of 8,096 (and 45 bookies) was in attendance for a jumps meeting there on Sunday 19 August. Even during the height of summer and it being a weekend, that’s an impressive crowd.
As for other courses, the lowest jumps attendance I can find in recent years is 289 for a meeting at Ffos Las on Monday 3 September, 2018. As a Welshman, that pains me to report.
This link also confirms a gut feeling I had about certain courses. Having never been to either I could be off-the-mark here, but I’ve always felt that Nottingham and Leicester were very similar – big cities with unremarkable courses. Leicester’s recent low was 428 on Thursday 14 February, 2019 (not much love in the air) with Nottingham’s being 551 on Wednesday 6 November, 2019.
The other interesting statistic on there is the number of runners at each meeting. Southwell’s flat meeting on Thursday 7 March, 2019, attracted only 19 runners (with a crowd of 146 and 9 bookies). It was a 6-race card that oddly started at 15:00 and ended at 17:40. These included three x 3-runner races, two x 4-runner races and a 2-horse race. Doesn’t get any more low-key than that, surely?!
A very useful link, for sure. I have looked up a few meetings I attended to see how many people were there.
I have only been to Ffos Las once. Not surprised it gets some sparse crowds. It is not the easiest course to reach.
The Nottingham fixture would have been a back end Flat meeting of maidens and low key handicaps, probably in bad weather. Surprised as many as 550 turned up!
I visited Gowran Park in 2019. If it was not for a group of students who were there for free, I doubt there would have been more than 100 paying customers.
And on the point of season ticket holders always being included in figures, I believe this happens in cricket as well. The counties count all their annual members as being present even if they are not. The attendances at County Championship matches are in reality even lower than the official figures which are already low.
Getting to Ffos Las isn’t helped by the convoluted signposting, once you arrive in Llanelli. It’s ridiculous that they pretty much send you via Kidwelly. I’m sure some of the locals wouldn’t want this broadcast too much, but the quicker and more direct route is to go in to Llanelli town centre, head for Furnace and then on through Trimsaran. I always go that way.
Cymro, if I recall correctly the convoluted “official” directions to Ffos Las are a deliberate ploy to reduce traffic through Trimsaran – not that I ever followed the official signs – I always used the route you suggested.
The trouble with Ffos Las is, unless you are a local it is a bugger to get to – like Fakenham it always seems to take ages to get there. Most of my visits there coincided with trips to Ireland so it was a stop off on the way to / from Fishguard.
In the Notes at the bottom of each enquiry it states:
“Attendance = Paying Public, Members and Complimentary Badges”
If that means all members are included whether or not they attended isn’t clear, though rummaging through the figures during the pandemic’s ‘behind closed doors’ policy suggests not
For example, the figures for the four days of this year’s Cheltenham Festival were recorded as 41 44 44 and a mere 26 on Gold Cup day
Who this mysterious handful were is anyone’s guess: owners with runners who were also members perhaps
Absolutely, Paul. I suppose it’s slightly different when talking of cars as compared to large horse boxes, where the type of road infrastructure is more relevant for the latter.
“The trouble with Ffos Las is, unless you are a local it is a bugger to get to – like Fakenham it always seems to take ages to get there.”
It was a mere four and a half hour train journey from Crewe to Llanelli one Friday for me. An overnight stay and then the bus to Ffos Las on Saturday.
Checked the attendance via the link and there were about 2,600 there. By the time of the fourth race, there might as well have been no one. Wales were playing in a rugby world cup quarter final. Almost all the crowd stayed in the bar to watch on the big screen. The bookies were almost begging us to have a bet.
Left after the fifth and arrived back in Llanelli with the match still in progress. It was like a ghost town with everyone either at home or in the pub watching the match.
I paid £23 for a card that was two novice hurdles, a beginner chase, three modest handicaps and a bumper. A month earlier, I had been at Leopardstown and saw two Group 1s, two other pattern races and two high class handicaps. Cost: €14.
Maybe British racecourses might like to consider if their ridiculous admission prices might have something to do with low attendances!
Maybe British racecourses might like to consider if their ridiculous admission prices might have something to do with low attendances!
You’ve hit the nail on the head there CAS.
In the old days, when I was just a regular punter and had to pay to go racing, my strategy was to buy a couple of annual memberships but the criteria for choosing which ones to buy was the number of “reciprocal” meetings available as part of the membership.
Buying Warwick and Huntingdon memberships gave reciprocals covering most UK and some Irish courses. It certainly made racing more affordable.
“Buying Warwick and Huntingdon memberships gave reciprocals covering most UK and some Irish courses. It certainly made racing more affordable.”
I remember reading about the Warwick membership in “Travelling the Turf”, published by the Racing Post. It sounded like incredible value. Didn’t get you discounts into Warwickshire cricket matches and Hall Green dogs as well?
Referring back to earlier, I realise Irish racing is funded differently and I am not comparing like with like. But I still think there is no justification in a track like Ffos Las charging over £20 for such meagre fare.
I am not singling out Ffos Las. I thought it was quite a nice track. But since going there to complete the set, I have not been racing very much in Britain and the expense is one of the main reasons.
One of the last meetings I went to was Thirsk, which was just £11 to get into Tatts thanks to going by train and getting £5 off the entrance fee plus a £2 Tote voucher. Other tracks should take note of how it can be done!
Didn’t get you discounts into Warwickshire cricket matches and Hall Green dogs as well?
You did, although I think quite a few courses seem to offer cricket benefits as well.
Ffos Las is part of the ARC group – Thirsk is an independent!!!!!!
- Total Posts 2553
Nice one, Drone
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.