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Maybe i just got perth on a bad day<br>I like to be in comfortable surroundings when i go racing and im affraid standing crammed in an old shed,only being able to see only the last couple of jumps ,surrounded by lads more intersted in the football scores is not my idea of fun
Funny Micky p whenever you go to the footie… folk want the racing results..strange but true.:)
Fair point phunter but i dont burst into a chorus of best mate,best mate.Maybe it was because they burst into celtic songs that i took offence
I think the 2 that are in most danger are Newton Abbot and Folkestone.The trackat Newton Abbot is wanted by developers for factory and housing small factorys and houses surround 2 sides of the track. very flat so cheap to build on good motorway links you can see the main Plymouth/ Exeter trunk road from the track.<br>The owners of Folkestone seem to want to sell for house building. The prices in that area are sky high due to the local Channel tunnel no suprise to see both these go.
I would get annoyed if someone burst into songs singing about Celtic next to me …now the Bluebells are Blue is another matter they could sing that all day for me if they wanted..:biggrin:
i quite like the less ‘popular’ courses just for the sake of quirkiness, but…
NEWMARKET (by all accounts soulless and, as is often said, needs a proper racecourse to be built)
BRIGHTON (nope, not for me, too many big-field 7 furlong apprentice handicaps and a ridiculous course layout)
BATH (lovely setting but funny course with strange results – well i can’t get winners there – and permanently fast going)
NOTTINGHAM (harmless, featureless, totally missable)
LINGFIELD POLYTRACK (‘lovely’ surface which virtually all horses act on and which seems to give dodgy stayers magical extra stamina – the reason i lost interest in all-weather racing, and i hope wolverhampton doesn’t go the same way!)
Ian
I have no doubt that the biggest contributer to the courses’ income is from off-course betting.
But that doesn’t mean that the courses aren’t motivated to get bodies through the door.
I have on my desk right now a colour advert from a newspaper for britishhorseracing.com which contains a special offer to entice people along to the races.
If the racing industry didn’t care about attendances, this advert, and all the similar ones slagged off on a weekly basis by John McCrirrick, wouldn’t exist.
People through the door means not just gate money, but income from selling food and drink and from on-course bookies who wouldn’t be there if there weren’t enough punters there to provide them with an income.
I’m no betting industry expert, so you can tell me if I’d be right in assuming that the big 3 want enough punters betting on course to provide a meaningful SP.
Whatever their reason, the racing industry is showing it wants punters through the gate.
However, at the same time as they are spending money to attract new customers they’re sitting idly by as the customers they do succeed in attracting don’t bother coming back because the facilities are so poor.
Personally, in my time going racing, no-one from the course has ever approached me and asked my opinions on the experience.
When watching racing in France, it’s hard not to be impressed by their facilities.
True, they have huge revenues from the tote and the popularity of the tierce. But there are simple, fairly inexpensive things courses here could copy from French racing.
Having free racesheets with all the runners, riders, weights, race conditions would cost next to nothing to provide.
Having somewhere with a couple of TV screens which show re-runs of the previous race would be a bonus too.
Steve
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