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I’m not asking that drinking be banned. But what’s wrong with restricting it to drinking indoors and not in the open air? Parade rings, pre-parade rings, unsaddling enclosures and betting rings should be no-go areas for alcohol on every course.
Agree absolutely with that Gus and endorse the rest of your post too.
Doncaster’s decision to allow lager-swilling here, there and everywhere is wholly wrong and unnecessary. It was presumably introduced as an adjunct to the otherwise successful "re-branding" of the shiny new course in an attempt to provide a relaxed and informal atmosphere, whereas in practice it results only in a more threatening, unpleasant and messy environment.
As far as I’m aware boozing is not (yet) allowed in LBOs so why should it be in course betting rings?
And the jarring scrunch as one inadvertantly crushes a plastic pint pot underfoot paddock-side does little for the temperament of a highly-strung thoroughbred
……………boozing is allowed in the pub next door to the betting shop though. Drunkenness can be problematic whether someone has a glass in their hand or not.
My suggestion would be to have least one Class 3 race or better at each meeting, please.
So many meetings these days seem to be full of Class 5s and 6s and if your lucky a couple of Class 4s.
Colin
This is a joke, surely? The BHA see fit to hand over £250,000 to a company who proceed only to pigeon-hole racegoers and state the blindingly obvious, and then send one of their men here seeking free consultation?
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so painfully depressing.
Equitrack – it would be if I’d been told "Go on TRF and see what they say" but no one sent me on here, it was a personal decision. I’m on one of the groups and was interested in what members of TRF thought. That wasn’t clear from my original post I know.
Admission charges for my two tracks (Southwell and Nottingham), are acceptable (membership for Southwell is particularly good value) but I am so glad I don’t live near Chester, Sandown or Goodwood.
Their pricing appears completely crackers to me, Paul. I love racing with a passion but I just won’t pay those prices, which excludes me from some great racing. Sorry if that appears tight but I know instinctively when I’m being bent over a kitchen table. At the Grade One tracks (York excepted), this is the case.
The old Cumani dictum about leeches and parasites holds true with racecourse admission prices as well as bookmaking. A leech lets you live while he bleeds you dry – a parasite has no such compunction.
I mentioned to an American friend of mine that it was the equivalent of forty five dollars to attend Sandown for the Classic trial and he nearly popped his ribs laughing. I mentioned the expressed justification being Premier League ticket prices but as he said,
thats an all-inclusive price.
With a day’s racing, the admission price is just the beginning. The Towcester model is absolutely ideal. I’d love to see the attendance figures on the wide expanses of the Sussex Downs if they charged a fiver to pay for the stewards.
I’d also look into the possibility of helping the racecourses employ professional educators/pro-punters to run seminars an hour before racing for the novices. Racecard reading etc. Give a person a fish, teach them to fish etc…
Some excellent points and I’d particularly endorse guskennedy and venusian’s posts. The first thing any working group should be aware of is that we don’t need novelty in the first instance. What we need primarily is to create a solid foundation for current racegoers. Once that is sorted then racing can look at controlled initiatives to attract new blood.
I’d also look into the possibility of helping the racecourses employ professional educators/pro-punters to run seminars an hour before racing for the novices. Racecard reading etc. Give a person a fish, teach them to fish etc…
A sound idea. Some meetings, particularly evening and weekend ones, already go down the "punters’ panel" route before racing. Can’t see any harm in extending (or in some cases even changing) the remit of these to include a bit of a how-to session.
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.
I’d largely agree with most of the points raised here.
A day at the races is too expensive a lot of the time. I was at Sandown for a midweek afternoon flat meeting a while back. £18 to get in, £6 quid for a racecard, £10 for a 1 course lunch (not bad quality granted), £7 quid for a couple of pints. This on top of the £15 quid to get to the track in the first place. 2 races miles away on the sprint track, lacklustre maidens, topped off with a 0-80 as I recall. The participants had a distinctly going through the motions feel about them.
I spoke to a guy who was working there that day, he told me the track would have been disappointed with the attendance. I’m certain Sandown is a completely different proposition on Eclipse, Tingle Creek, Whitbred day etc but I didnt feel I got any value for money that day and I wont be going back for a similar days racing there again at those prices.
I dont understand why kids under 16 cant get in free all the time, if getting them while their young is to be part of the policy going forward. Their parents should get 50% off as well for bringing them in the first place. They’ll spend the savings on ice cream and coke once their inside anyway. With evening meetings and school holidays their is a huge untapped captive market, engage it with some incentives!!
Drinking needs to be confined to predesignated areas. Robust security to enforce a zero tolerance policy for troublemakers. Kick them out straight away, no questions asked, they’ll soon stop coming.
Why not get local musicians to busk at the track on the interval between races especially when the track expects it to be busy. The garden nature of a lot of tracks would be perfect for this. String quartets, folk, jazz, balladeers etc, no cost to the racecourse, the musicians keep the money, the crowd get a little more "raceday experience". You only have to look at the crowds these acts (the good ones) attract on the street to know it goes down well with the general public. Maybe they’ll come back for more of the same.
So make it less expensive for adults, make it free for kids, make it zero tolerance for pissheads, make it entertaining between races.
I dont understand why kids under 16 cant get in free all the time, if getting them while their young is to be part of the policy going forward. Their parents should get 50% off as well for bringing them in the first place. They’ll spend the savings on ice cream and coke once their inside anyway. With evening meetings and school holidays their is a huge untapped captive market, engage it with some incentives!!
Agreed, advertise and rigourously promote discounted ‘family tickets’ inclusive of a racecard and complimentary soft drink and nibbles for the children to make them feel welcome and a bit ‘special’. They are the future
Why not get local musicians to busk at the track on the interval between races especially when the track expects it to be busy. The garden nature of a lot of tracks would be perfect for this. String quartets, folk, jazz, balladeers etc, no cost to the racecourse, the musicians keep the money, the crowd get a little more "raceday experience".
Agreed, York usually have a jazz band playing and it improves the ambience between races no end. Smiling racegoers, would you believe it.
I’d also like to hear more tannoy announcements letting folk know what is going on such as "ladies and gentlemen the horses for the feature race this afternoon, the Dante Stakes due off at 2.40 are at present being saddled and will shortly be in the parade ring"
And on the subject of saddling/unsaddling boxes, it would be nice if these enclosures were made more spectator-friendly as I for one when not actively engaged in betting matters enjoy idling away some time watching connections tack-up and hose-down the noble beasts.
I made some of my thoughts known already here:
http://betting.betfair.com/horse-racing … 91108.html
and would particularly like to emphasise point 8 from my own experience. I would be happy to give my many other thoughts on racing, but not for free when others are getting rewarded handsomely for doing so.
Having been at York this week, I thought the idea of audio coverage from the paddock and pre-race was a good one but that in reality it quickly became tiresome.
Racing is complicated. But it should be possible to make people realise that it rewards considered analysis rather than off-the-cuff assertions that do not always stand up.
I thought the York official racecard, while far too "busy" in a design sense, was a very good effort at connecting with the racegoer with points of interest as well as information and entertainment.
The one thing above all else IMHO that needs to be done is to demystify the whole racing experience for newcomers to the sport. The vast majority of newcomers seem to walk around a racecourse in a state of utter bewilderment. The reason many of them end up staying in the bar for the whole meeting is that what’s going on outside is utterly alien.
Here are a few suggestions:
There should be information points absolutely everywhere on a racecourse telling people where everything is and how to actually have a bet.
There should be big screens by every parade ring showing a preview of each race.
The betting ring should be abolished and betting should be exclusively through the tote.
Parade rings should be sited between the course and the main grandstand at all courses with the tote windows all built into the front of the grandstand. Having arrived at the course there should never be a reason to go behind the grandstand.
A replay of the race should be shown on the big screen immediately after the race.
All tote windows should have screens displaying all the runners’ colours next to their numbers and the practice of the tote return including the £1 stake should either be abolished or explained in foot high letters by each tote window.
There should be entertainment after racing for all evening meetings.
There should be no more than six races on the card and there should be a break of 45 minutes between each race to give people chance to grab a drink/something to eat at any point in the afternoon without having to miss any of the proceedings.
There should be one enclosure but, as with football, if you want a better viewing position you can pay extra for a seat in the grandstand.
What happened at Thirsk on May 2nd.
I was on course that day and although their were a few loud noises coming from the upstairs bar behind the stands their didnt seem to be any trouble that day.
Regarding things i would do to improve racing.
Each card should have 7 or 8 races.
Admission based on the quality of the card
Scrap Silver Rings and reduce Tatts admission
Anybody drunk on a racecourse should be banned for life
And to elaborate on another point mentioned by a previous poster (sorry, I’m on a roll now
), all horses should enter the parade ring in racecard order and be announced as they do so. The pre-parade ring should be used to saddle up the runners and organise them to do this.Parades in front of the grandstand would therefore be unnecessary.
all horses should enter the parade ring in racecard order and be announced as they do so. The pre-parade ring should be used to saddle up the runners and organise them to do this.
A fair enough idea to get the horses organised. Late entry to the paddock is a right pain. I’m not over enamoured when horses are allowed to go down early either.
In addition, when horses are at the stalls they should enter in stalls order, and if they fail after a couple of tries then they are withdrawn. No waiting to go in last. The onus should be on trainers to train horses properly for using the stalls, as they are required to train properly for the remainder of the race process from paddock to running in the race.
If a horse is declared a non-runner then there should be an explanation of the reason, not just the hackneyed old ‘the trainer states that xxxxxx will not run’. Wolverhampton is only course where I can recall being informed of the reason for a horse not running. I went to one meeting a couple of years ago at Perth where rain caused a change of ground and 7 non-runners. The bookmakers were asking around to see if anyone knew the full list of non-runners!
Complimentary racecards at all courses. It’s part of the service to tell the paying public what’s running so the racecard should be included with admission.
Some won’t like this, but keep the drinks in the bar areas. I’m fed up with treading on plastic glasses toward the end of meetings, even worse when some are half full. This is a problem at too many courses, though some notably Cheltenham are strict on the no drink areas. On the subject of drinking, better policing at the turnstiles to turn away those who have been ‘beering it up’ before getting to the course. When living in the south I was put off going to Newbury on Saturdays when coach loaded of racegoers were half-cut before they got to the gates.
Rob
In light of Alan’s suggestion I have gone to the trouble of preparing a revised script in the event of withdrawels that should spell out to racegoers in simple language what is going on:
As racegoers are probably aware [Horse’s name] suffered a fatal heart attack in the parade ring prior to the [n]th race. Win punters should be aware that they will have 10% of their winnings docked as a result. This is because the price at the time of withdrawel was 9/1. This should not be confused with the price at the time of the heart attack of 50/1, which was swiftly revised downwards in the minute between the horse’s death and it’s official withdrawel as the bookmakers present considered its chances had rapidly increased as a result of it lieing down drawing its last breath.
Place backers should be aware that only three places will now be paid at reduced odds, as we believe your chances of placing frist three of fifteeen is greater than that of getting placed first four of sixteen. On an academic note, anyone who backed the horse now resting in peace from 50s into 9s is entitled to a refund on their mythical stake.
In light of Alan’s suggestion I have gone to the trouble of preparing a revised script in the event of withdrawels that should spell out to racegoers in simple language what is going on:
As racegoers are probably aware [Horse’s name] suffered a fatal heart attack in the parade ring prior to the [n]th race. Win punters should be aware that they will have 10% of their winnings docked as a result. This is because the price at the time of withdrawel was 9/1. This should not be confused with the price at the time of the heart attack of 50/1, which was swiftly revised downwards in the minute between the horse’s death and it’s official withdrawel as the bookmakers present considered its chances had rapidly increased as a result of it lieing down drawing its last breath.
Place backers should be aware that only three places will now be paid at reduced odds, as we believe your chances of placing frist three of fifteeen is greater than that of getting placed first four of sixteen. On an academic note, anyone who backed the horse now resting in peace from 50s into 9s is entitled to a refund on their mythical stake.
As I mentioned earlier, Glenn, the solution to all this is to abolish on course bookmakers. Betfair can now produce the SP and everyone on course can bet on the tote. From the point of view of making racing more accessible, the betting ring adds nothing and actually takes up valuable space in front of the grandstand.
……………boozing is allowed in the pub next door to the betting shop though. Drunkenness can be problematic whether someone has a glass in their hand or not.
Simple – if they are drunk they are ejected if they kick up a stink about being ejected they are arrested for drunk and disorderly.
Most race meetings seem to have a police presence and instead of srtolling around chatting (which is what they seem to do) their time would be better spent dealing with those morons who confuse the racecourse with their local high street.
The sooner courses sort out these drunks the sooner more decent racegoers will be attracted back.
Has the BHA bothered to find out how many racegoers have been lost due to this problem.
Even Newton Abbot last Tuesday evening sounded like a football terrace rather than a racecourse.
), all horses should enter the parade ring in racecard order and be announced as they do so. The pre-parade ring should be used to saddle up the runners and organise them to do this.
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