Falling attendances

[droffats]

Is it any wonder that they continue to fall with firstly the price of admission and then what they put on. Low rated horses, small fields, basically very poor fare.
John Egan summed it uo when he said “you’ve got no-one going racing because nobody wants to go and look at that crap”
I have to say he is spot on at the minute the standard of racing is pretty dire.

[IanDavies]

As previously discussed, there is value if you’re selective.

Epsom Downs: Blue Riband Trial, City & Suburban Handicap, Great Metropolitan Handicap – £10 access all areas.

Sandown Park: Classic Trial, Gordon Richard Stakes, Group 2 Mile, saw Alcohol
Free, Westover and Emily Upjohn – £20 Grandstand.

Sandown Park: Henry II Stakes, Brigadier Gerard Stakes, National Stakes – £15 Grandstand.

Epsom Downs: Final meeting, £10 access all areas.

All the above free with R4R points too.

Yes, a lot of racing is poor value – especially at ARC tracks.

Here’s an interesting one – there are still plenty of £37 tickets in the lesser Queen Anne Enclosure for Champions Day, you’re 100yds plus from the winning post, but it’s four Group 1s, a Group 2 which is a Group 1 in all but name and a big handicap.

I am only half an hour from the track but I cba to go – it’s all on the telly, the weather forecast isn’t great and I don’t want to be swerving the scuffles breaking out on Ascot High Street after racing I saw last year.

But many would say in this day and age £37 isn’t a lot for elite sporting action.

I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"

[griff11]

Woodbine September 17th
RICOH WOODBINE MILE G1 $1,000,000
NATALMA STAKES G1 $500,000
PATTISON SUMMER STAKES G1 $500,000
SEAWAY STAKES G3 $150,000

Woodbine October 8th
E.P. TAYLOR STAKES G1 $750,000
NEARTIC STAKES G1 $250,000
DURHAM CUP G3 $150,000
WOODBINE CARES STAKES $150,000
ONTARIO RACING STAKES $150,000

PARKING: FREE
ADMISSION: FREE

[IanDavies]

….Fixed odds betting option: zero, Pari-Mutuel betting take-out: massive.

It’s the eternal debate – there’s a reason why going racing in Tote-only jurisdictions is cheap or even free.

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"

[griff11]

Totally agree Ian.

The racing is far superior to here, both in quality and atmosphere, even if it is generally too expensive.

[IanDavies]

For sure, if you’re a racegoer first and a punter second, it’s jurisdictions like that which offer the best value day out by a country mile.

Similar story in France and at most USA racetracks.

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"

[Miss Woodford]

Ah but we also have the option of going to an American hunt meet where you have to pay $60 to $150 for a parking pass and there’s usually no wagering offered at all. These draw bigger crowds than most parimutuel tracks. But they are more social events (read: excuses for college students to get drunk) with jumps racing as incidental entertainment. Locals call the Iroquois Steeplechase meet in Nashville the Iroquois Peoplewaste for that reason.

[IanDavies]

“there’s usually no wagering offered at all”

In which case it’s not horse racing – it’s horses meaninglessly running round a field.

Unless one has some deferential desire to cheer on someone else’s horse, with no vested financial interest personally, it’s not much of a day out in my book.

If I’m Stateside, you’ll find me some place else – probably downtown at the nearest urban conurbation, making short work of a family-sized deep pan pizza.

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"

[Miss Woodford]

Okay, correcting myself: there is no officially-sanctioned wagering at many of them. There are absolutely “gentlemen’s bets” going on. But 95% of the crowd isn’t interested in that.

But the main reason US jumps racing* has largely been relegated to such events is that for whatever reason the betting public just hates it. Once upon a time just about all the major tracks on the east coast had permanent steeplechase courses, this was before flat racing on turf really caught on here. From 1897 to 1967 the American Grand National was an actual steeplechase worthy of its name, ran mainly at Belmont Park. In the 1960s-70s track owners realized that more people were betting on the flat turf races than jumping and the jumps courses were seen as just taking up room. Moving from permanent fences to portable hurdles was a futile attempt at appeasing these tracks. Even the “real” racetracks that have hurdle racing now view them as a favor done for the horsemen. Colonial Downs makes its hurdle races non-wagering events. At Saratoga now they’re always the first race of the day and exotic wagers never include them. It’s forced the sport to evolve in a very idiosyncratic direction and catering to the college drinking crowd is a part of that.

*aside from timber which is its own weird little corner between the three worlds of equestrian sport, foxhunting, and the rest of horse racing

[IanDavies]

What a fascinating post – I really enjoyed reading that as it contained quite a bit of detail of which I was unaware.

Thank you.

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"

[Salateen]

I can never think of John Egan without thinking of his ‘winning’ on Millie’s Kiss or was it Mandarin Princess? No, I think I was right first time but I too find it confusing.

[Author]

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