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Hi all, from my experiences of racecourses, having visited a few in my short time on the planet, i would narrow it down to these, having grown up in the South West, Taunton, Exeter, Newton Abbot and of course Cheltenham would be right up there.
Since moving to Bedfordshire last year have been to Huntingdon and Newmarket a few times and they would also rank highly, along with Uttoxeter, but for me having only been once Chester would just probably top the lot absolutely great.
Cheers for now.
Agree unreservedly with you on Towcester and Ascot. It’s been five years since I’ve been to Carlisle (for last Monday’s meeting, as it happens) and I quite liked it, though the viewing could have been a touch better. Has this been redeveloped to any extent since then?
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)The roof of the old, condemned stand at Carlisle gave a better view of its replacement. It’s not as high and I don’t think there’s much cover, unless you go in the head on stand.
Agree with your comments about the improved programme at Carlisle, and it should be added that they are a building a new hurdle course to run inside the chase course, starting in 2009 I think. Hopefully this and the recent drainage work will mean that fewer NH meetings will be cancelled there.
Other good viewing courses I like are Ayr and Ludlow.
Agree with the forumites who rate Goodwood the best of the Grade 1 tracks.
As for the smaller tracks, I’ve been to most of them (not Carlisle) and would unreservedly give my vote to PERTH as the best I’ve experienced — atmosphere, ease of viewing, scenery, quality of racing — it’s got it all. No contest, IMO.
Perth’s still the only Scottish track I’ve been to, shameful to report. I attended two days of the 2005 April Festival there – bumping into TRF’s very own APRacing – and enjoyed it immensely for all the reasons Highflyer listed. Evidently a pig to commentate at, though, as has been mentioned elsewhere previously.
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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.
Agree unreservedly. Summer jumping nut or no, there are very strong reasons why, in the last five seasons, I’ve been to Market Rasen around 11 times and Stratford only once. You’ve just hit on the main one.
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When I went to Stratford in March I couldn’t see the last fence because someone had allowed a bloody red ice-cream van to park in front of it! I won’t be back any time soon!
Since then, of course, the last fence has been removed completely. I wonder if the ice-cream van has too.
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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.
I have to say I have only been to Perth once and it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience.
Viewing was not that good, it pi$$ed down all day with very little shelter, overcrowded and full of drunks, and to top it off, it took over 3/4 of an hour to get out of the car park.
I may just have been unlucky and will be going back next year to find out if I was.
Unfortunately I did not have a chance to get there this year – I finally managed, after many years, to get the "full set" of courses last year. This year I set myself a target to visit every course again, this time in a calendar year – almost managed it, only missed Thirsk and Perth. I will have another attempt next year. Plus I must do more Irish ones as well.
Always fun to set oneself some targets, Paul. In my case I’d like to make first-ever trips to meetings in Ireland, the Channel Islands and Germany next year… having chiselled off my four outstanding UK jumps tracks and umpteen more point-to-point venues first, natch.
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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.
Always fun to set oneself some targets, Paul. In my case I’d like to make first-ever trips to meetings in Ireland, the Channel Islands and Germany next year… having chiselled off my four outstanding UK jumps tracks and umpteen more point-to-point venues first, natch.
gc
Jeremy, I have only been two two Irish meetings (Fairyhouse for the National and Punchestown for the festival) and they were both absolutely great – good racing and great atmosphere (plus I was absolutely besotted with the pre-race entertainment at Punchestown). I can’t wait to get back for more and thanks to Mr O’Leary at Ryanair and some of his offers it can be cheaper to get across to Ireland than to get to some UK courses.
I will have to see how many I can knock off next year.
stay at Naas, go to Punchestown and then drive round the Wicklow Hills stopping off at Glendaloch….magic!! something to remember is that if you buy the [?] Irish Herald you get in half price – but realised long ago that it was impossible to pick winners there…
I can’t wait to get back for more and thanks to Mr O’Leary at Ryanair and some of his offers it can be cheaper to get across to Ireland than to get to some UK courses.
Ain’t that the truth! You’re about as well-placed as me in MK to take advantage of some of the 1p all-in flights he advertises (very briefly!) from time to time.
We did a day trip to Dublin from Luton that way in July, which kind of first planted the seed. That was reinforced when we saw how easy is it to get to Hamburg racecourse from Stansted during our 4p four-day trip there last month. Let’s see if I can’t get over to the latter for one of their Seejagdrennen (steeplechase with lake crossings) next June…
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.
This year I set myself a target to visit every course again, this time in a calendar year.
Are you Alan Lee or Cornelius Lysaght? lol – they’ve had a bet a bet this year over who will be the first to do just that.
Are you Alan Lee or Cornelius Lysaght? lol – they’ve had a bet a bet this year over who will be the first to do just that.
God forbid
Actually that probably explains why I have been seeing Cornelius at some of the more "obscure" courses this year
Jeremy and Paul, regarding cheap flights to Germany, the city of Cologne is an easy 20 minute train ride from the airport. We stayed in a hotel near the central station, and it was if anything a shorter journey on the local train out the other side to the racecourse. You didn’t even have to speak German to have a bet, you just filled in tickets like jackpot/placepot ones here. All very civilised, and I’m sure I will look for a few more German towns with racecourses to visit.
Noted with grateful thanks, Ravel
. Cologne wasn’t on my immediate shortlist of German tracks to visit, owing to the complete absence – rather than simply a paucity – of jumps action there; but I know the place quite well from family holidays and school exchanges, and would certainly intend returning at some point for a break of some description.Language isn’t an issue with me, lucky to say, being fluent in German. Then again, there’s German and then there’s Bavarian, so I’d still probably die on my a*rse trying to be understood at Munich races…
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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.
. Cologne wasn’t on my immediate shortlist of German tracks to visit, owing to the complete absence – rather than simply a paucity – of jumps action there; but I know the place quite well from family holidays and school exchanges, and would certainly intend returning at some point for a break of some description.- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.