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Come on lads.
We can all sit here and give it the big licks about how we’ve all got balls like watermelons and would unquestionably let it ride.
But if we’re in the financial situation 90% of the country is I.e 2 or 3 pay cheques or less away from being in true financial hardship then you’re probably gonna cash out. At least partially.
You certainly need to choose which meetings you go to when trying to avoid the social crowd.
I do often wonder what they get out of it. To me it seems the lasses get to liberally apply fake tan, wear some lovely dresses and generally have a feeling that they’re looking glamorous.
The men get to sniff coke and drink from
11am and potentially score one of the lasses who’s had far too much Prosecco later in the night.Thankfully the flat crowd haven’t fully infiltrated the cold and wet meetings November to February yet and that’s when I go to the track more often.
York/Chester/Donny or any weekend fixture in the summer with a pop act afterwards then you couldn’t get me to attend for all the tea in china.
However. Those meetings are absolutely mobbed. So you know full well that there’s plenty more of them coming to a course near you soon.
But the bookies must hate them. £2, £5, maybe a tenner if they’re lucky is the average stake. They probably struggle to take a couple of grand across the card. Because the queues at the bookies are practically non existent in comparison to what they were like on course 20 years ago.
Small fields, crap prize money, poor attendance with people deciding to boycott the rails bookie.
There seems to be a perfect storm coming for British race courses if these trends continue.
If you can guide me to those places Ian I’d be most grateful. The only times I’ve enjoyed my food on a racecourse is when I’ve taken the mrs and paid for the hospitality. Chester on the Sunday family funday in the white horse and ascots meeting in February to the 5th floor restaurant are both very enjoyable.
The absolute muck that’s on offer at the catering outlets open to the general public serve no purpose to any self appreciating man or woman who’s not had an absolute belly full of crap wine/lager.
I’m sure it’s been remarked many a time on here about the direction race courses are going in to attract a different/younger crowd is simply alienating its core supporters.
The problem is, I’m not sure what they need to do to attract the Ian Davies of the world back to the course to get them to part with their hard earned.
It’s the pissed up 20 somethings that are keeping most courses afloat these days! However everyone has their tipping point. I’m due to go again for the festival in march on a coach trip and I’ve already made my mind up that I’m not going to be drinking when I go and I’ll take a packed lunch to eat before and after.
That’s not a viable option for many so a lot of people will begin to add up entrance fee (cheapest available £60 best mate) let’s say a fiver a race. 8 pints and something to eat and decide that the thick end of £200 for standing in a cold field in march just ain’t value for money when they consider that the actual spectacle in front of them is of little or no interest.
It can’t go un-noticed by any genuine fan of horse racing that the vast majority of the crowd at any meeting these days doesn’t know one end of a horse from
the other.
I’m inclined to agree with you on most points Ian. For the November meeting can I come to yours and you can make me some dinner and provide me with fruit based juices?
The viewing spectacle isn’t the best, no doubt about that. But it’s still a great feeling when you’re there live and your horse jumps the last half a length up to be able to shout them home up the hill.
You can’t recreate that in your living room.
I understand from your previous posts your a self confessed misery guts and if your happy to watch the racing on mute, never go to a meeting with more than 3 bookies in attendance and refuse to spend a single penny then that’s great.
But racing benefits from a prosperous crowd spending a few quid and enjoying themselves.
On the specific point of Cheltenham though, you’re 100% correct that it’s a poor viewing experience on course.
I left after the 3m handicap hurdle (3rd on An Tailliur which copped me an each way double with the wolf, thanks for asking)
And the crowd was noticeably thin on the ground throughout.
Not as much disposable income to go around even down in the Cotswolds and listening to the chatter the general conversation was the standard young girl drama about who was drunk last night, she was sooooo smashed she liiiiike slept with Ellie’s brother LOL.
At £7.50 a pint though, who the **** wants to make an effort to go. I managed to spend the princely sum of nothing but I understand that for many a few bevvies at the races is part of the day out.
I can give you the following statement from Ian Renton that will almost certainly sound something like this in the next couple of weeks.
“We’ve made the decision to add a fifth day based on a number factors. Firstly there’s a significant number of people currently unable to attend a midweek fixture and we felt it important to give them them the chance to see high class racing too. Allied to this, after we made the decision to cap the numbers for each day it seemed prudent to give others the chance to choose which day to attend when it’s perhaps a little quieter”
So so predictably sad.
The shunter will be my win bet with Discordantly and Ronald Pump a couple of each way savers.
Considering the amount of whingeing and hand wringing you do on here Ian Davis I’m flabbergasted you haven’t registered your interest so you can really demonstrate your ire to those no nothing idiots.
Give them a jolly good piece of your mind and let them know exactly where it is there going wrong.
A Mr Sunak and a Ms Truss are also in desperate need of a campaign manager as well at this moment in time.
Yeah it’s quite sneakily tucked away on their website. And as you say, if they truly wanted peoples opinions on the subject a mail would have gone round.
They’ve sent me two emails already this month to tell me to buy my festival tickets for the best price and that the early bird catches the worm for all other meetings as well.
I made this thread to bring it to the attention of people who might not think of visiting a winter jumps track website in July to try and register an interest in a survey. Shysters that they are.
I would imagine Ian that you’re the exception to the rule though. It’s clear that the reason tracks offer free entry race days once or twice a year is to try and get them to spend money once there.
Most people will have a few drinks at the races. Alcoholic or not but to stand there for 5 hours or more and not spend a penny is an impressive feat of Scroogieness haha.
Tighter than two coats of paint!
I’m taking the arl fella to the afternoon fixture at Bath next Tuesday. A bit of dad and his lad socialising with a couple of beers and a meal in the restaurant.
Looking at the entries there’s only 6 races, 4 of which are grade 6 and at this time have numbers ranging from 7-21 entered.
I absolutely have no issue at all with low grade racing. The handicaps can be fun to try and solve.
What I don’t want to happen is we get there and all 6 races are single digit fields with 3 or 4 of them having short priced favs. I’m hoping the fact they only have 6 races provides an uplift in field sizes.
It’s something that needs doing more, if the tracks are that desperate to keep people there for an extra half hour they’re missing the point. More competitive racing would probably bring more people through the gates. Especially midweek.
Would it kill them to have a grandstand entry ticket for a fiver though? £17 in advance is a lot of money for a bog standard Tuesday afternoon.
Those amnesty bins are always just about overflowing each time I pass them on my way into the races.
The first thing someone thinks of when they’ve spent £80 on a gram of coke is throwing it into a bin so they can’t fry high as a kite later on.
Who thinks this **** up?
You could scrap about 400 fixtures from across the annual calendar and still be left with about the same amount of unnecessary fluff/low level garbage.
Racing is its own worst enemy sometimes.
Uttoxeter, Wolverhampton, Doncaster, Chester, Windsor, Pontefract and plenty others like them should be told in no uncertain terms that if they can’t build a sustainable business on around 15-18 meetings a year then they shouldn’t be in business at all.
The program book is beyond a joke now. Just off the top of my head I think Tuesday’s meeting at Brighton will be it’s 3rd in about 12 days. Uttoxeter raced today and has another meeting Thursday, has another a week after then another 6 days after that.
Chester has a similar number of meetings for the next couple of months, the AW tracks churn out nothing but garbage year round.
Until someone at the BHA has the kahonas to trim a good 200/300 MEETINGS a year racing is going to be in an ever decreasing spiral.
This year a ticket to the cheapest enclosure available at Cheltenham was £70 on the day. I was on a coach trip where I got the return travel and a breakfast in a pub first for £70.
However if you paid on the day on the Wednesday (when I went) and were left with the option of watching the racing from the stands but couldn’t have a drink in your hands at the same time or in the enormous marquee and watching the racing on a massive screen or getting absolutely lashed with rain outside of the stands (the two available stands held maybe 3 thousand people between the two I’d estimate in an enclosure holding maybe 10 thousand) then paying £7 a pint £12 for a burger etc. That is frankly a scandal.
I had no problem getting served whatsoever but the facilities and level of amenities for £70 is absurd. I’ve no desire whatsoever to pay £120 for club enclosure because that’s even worse. Queues 10 deep, can’t watch the racing at the same time as having a drink, crap food/toilets awful etc.
On the contrary I’ve told my mrs that we’ll be going to Ireland next year for the punchestown festival. £220 for a table in the course facing restaurant with a 3 course meal, table reserved for the day and arguably more competitive racing surrounded by people who are there for the racing and not to get bladdered or off their tits on cocaine.
Not for the first time Nevison talking pony on Rtv saying L’homme presse has to have it soft for him to win the GC next year.
Ahoy senor is imperious at Aintree but venetias horse beat him with no excuses at Cheltenham. There’s far more emphasis on jumping in the gold cup and that’s far more l’homme presses bag.
Huge over reaction to the respective prices imo.
I picked the wrong Bowen horse when Mac Tottie won the Sefton and I’m convinced he’s got a big race in him. He didn’t jump great that day though so perhaps the fences don’t suit.
Senior citizen will run a big race as well. He does enjoy the fences and I’ll put the pretty tame effort last time out down to the soft ground.
