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I don’t know if this was mentioned earlier . Entry to Newbury tomorrow Friday February 17th is free . http://www.lovetheraces.com/whats-on/free-friday-at-newbury/
It is all well and good Newbury offering free admission but it will have an adverse impact on Sandown who have a charity race day to raise money for Armed Forces charities.
I would like to hope Newbury and their sponsors Betfair will make a significant contribution to the charities who will be losing out as a result of their cynical marketing gimmick but I would not hold my breath.
While I have no love of marketing gimmicks or advertising executives utterly lacking personality, I think that giving Newbury the benefit of doubt in this case seems reasonable. I’m sure the free entry idea only came about after some dullard read about Musselburgh offering free entry for the first 1000 customers last Saturday and they jumped on the band wagon without a thought for the impact such a move might have. As you say, we can only hope the sponsors will realize the impact the re-staged meeting and its enticements will have on fundraising on Royal Artillery Gold Cup day and make a healthy recompense.
Apropos of ‘free meetings’, have RFC any plans to repeat the free racing week initiative this year?
Perhaps more incredulous is that the Scilly Isles Novices Chase is being run at Newbury when its proper venue is staging a meeting on the same day.
One does get the impression that the same level of thought goes into race planning as county councils employ in their highways departments.
Anyone else go ?
Wasn’t it great ?
After a two and a quarter hour drive, I was within three miles of the track…….but those last three miles took two hours.
I missed the first two races and only made it for the third thanks to my gorgeous girlfriend (she is dictating this
) who offered to park the car, enabling me to leg it to the course to place my win bet on Sire De Grugy 
I’d guess that the queues at the food and coffee stands were 40 minutes or more, which would have meant missing another race, maybe two.
So we left.
300-odd miles and a day off work, 7 hours driving.
Not a copper in sight to ease traffic in……I won’t be hurrying back.I normally enjoy racing at Newbury but today they got it horribly wrong – much bigger crowd than expected – huge queues for everything and much worse traffic at a total standstill for almost two hours after racing – last race 3.35, we left car park, 6.05! Have previously complained about the quality of the commentary from the steppings of the Hampshire Stand – still almost inaudible and muffled yet the racecourse can find the money to turn what was a valued bar/tote/betting shop into a high class champagne bar with usual inflated prices. Disappointed in Newbury at the moment.
Anyone else go ? Wasn’t it great ?
I’m sorry it was a bad experience Monksfield. I’m assumung you came into Newbury from the M4 & down the A334, past the Vodafone complex? On busy racedays, the closer you get to the town, the more conjested that road gets. Think today it was exceptionally bad. A couple of my friends gave up & turned back when it was clear they were going to miss the Sprinter Sacre & Long Run races.
Whether it’s the fault of the racecourse or the police, they badly over-looked what was going to be predictable conjestion. What with the free admission, early 12.10pm start & families coming as it was half-term etc.
Not that it helps you now, but there more sneaky ways of getting to the racecourse quicker, via the small roads from the south & east of the town. I came from Reading, left at 11am, & even on those roads, did most of the journey in 30 minutes, & the last half a mile took me another 30 minutes, & the same to get out, even though I skipped the lase race.
They must have been pleased with the turn-out, but imo they were not prepared for it.
To make it worse for you Sire De Grugy was the only horse I backed all day, but I backed him each-way ! Thought he was going to win when he hit the front in the home straight.
Well, it was always going to be busy wasn’t it? The late opening didn’t help, concentrating arrivals in a shorter than usual time. Half-term, Friday, good races.
IT WAS FREE!! Don’t know how people can complain. You know, people complain when these things are not re-arranged – "look at Ireland they put it on a few days later and it’s free to get in" – and complain when they are re-arranged! Thanks Betfair and Newbury, it was a very good day.
And yes, there was collection for armed forces rehab and Betfair donated £5000.
Great racing, but shambolic planning and traffic management!
I came up from the A339, and like others have said, the last few miles took nearly an hour. Luckily I made the decision to dump the car down a side street and walked the last mile to the course. I also made the decision to leave before the Novice Chase.
Such a good card, and it could have been a real success, but lack of planning by the course has probably scuppered a lot of the good work.
Sprinter Sacre is some machine!
I’m not complaining about the fact it was free although as an annual member that didn’t matter anyway, and I’m glad the meeting was on and good racing, but a good many people brought children and I can’t imagine it was much fun for them sitting in the car park after racing going nowhere for two hours tired and hungry. I appreciate some of the traffic problems were beyond Newbury’s control but not even for the busiest Hennessy meeting have I known the traffic to simply not move. I did overhear some parents saying they would "never go racing again" and that’s a shame.
Without dwelling on the negative points too much, the comments made about the travelling are very important. That is part of the experience, & I would say thousands had a bad experience yesterday.
Not sure if this is totally true, but a friend rang me at 12.30pm, still deep in a traffic jam. He told me the A339 was at such a standstill, people were getting out of their cars to get lunchs & stuff out of their car boots.
I’m sure it was gutting for Emerald to be stuck in the car-park for 2 hours+ after racing, but it must of been terribly disappointing, even upsetting, for the people stuck in traffic. Especially as the early races were the best ones, which I assume was dictated by the TV.
Think Aji’s comment about concentrating arrivals in a shorter than usual time, is probably very accurate.
The other dissapointent I had, was that we sort of have a moral code that if you’re getting in for nothing, it’s an idea to support the company & spend the entrance money with them. Would have been happy to spend £20 per head on food & drink, but found it near on impossible to do so, without having to miss the horses parading or the racing iteself.
Shame, because this was potentially a great free racing model. You get 10,000+ captive visitors inside your course, sell them lots of expensive food & drink, and recoup your entrance fees, and some.
Am also a member at Newbury. Sad to hear of people having a bad day.
Missed the first race too, even though I don’t use major roads. My fault, although left home earlier than usual I should’ve known it would be very busy. If it wasn’t for Channel 4, with so many in a traffic jam, suspect Newbury would’ve put the racing back half an hour. To be fair, C4 did change their plans to accomodate the day.On busy days, those coming from the south and South-West should consider A303 and then A343.
Newbury Racecourse did give a warning about congestion midway through the card, so as people could leave early.
Didn’t have as many food outlets as a normal Saturday. Thankfully I brought some food myself and forgot to take the tablets (diabetic) that morning; as without food would’ve been in hypo territory! Again, to be fair, this was hastily arranged and Newbury may not have been able to get as many food outlets as they’d like.
Suppose we should be grateful of the day being resurected anyway and expect these problems. At least plenty of favourites and short priced ones came in, so Joe Public might have had a good day punting-wise. Just a shame about the traffic.
Value Is EverythingI’ve only been to Newbury a couple of times and admittedly it was Hennessy day both times. But I swore I’d never go again – it was too bad for my blood pressure. The traffic was horrendous but there seemed to be little or no effort to manage the problem. That was what was really annoying.
I was pleased they managed to stage the main races. Free entry isn`t
great for everyone though. I was going to use a Tesco clubcard voucher last
Saturday but expired now. The thought of a 230 mile round trip with
horrendous congestion deterred me from trying yesterday.It was free for local residents on the first day of the November meeting too. On that occasion the small fry like me who had a long journey and just paying for the grandstand had to endure a 15 minute wait at the turnstiles because of a computer glitch, meaning they`d already left the paddock for the first despite arriving in plenty of time.They don`t give a damn.
In what was a very sparsely attended enclosure I attempted to get a slightly less remote view of the last fence by going to the corner near the running rails where the picnic benches are sited on the grass. The view was useless and the grass wet so got up on the bench. Naturally I was soon whisked away by two security jobsworths fearing for my safety.Essentially I like the course but I think they get a lot wrong. Don`t think i`ll be bothering with it for a while
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