An interesting approach to entertaining the punters and getting them through the gates is seen when you compare my visit today with last week at Musselburgh.
Race courses are having to find ways of attracting their customers and last week was an excellent example of having a celebrity compere. Mind you, Musselburgh is small enough to do this, with the excellent and skilled Derek Thompson in charge of the MC duties.
Today's meeting at Ayr was billed as Valentine's Raceday. The only nod in this direction was to be seen in one hen party, one stag party, and a lot of women thinking they should dress for Ascot Ladies Day on an end of winter's day. Other than the usual band after the meeting, there was little else to share romance at the meeting.
This was also the day that the shocking news from Newbury came through on the TV screens in the lounge bar. Two horses had (possibly) been the victim of a faulty electric cable in the parade ring and had been electrocuted. This information was not know when it was announced that the meeting was to be abandoned. We wondered if it was to do with adverse weather, until the announcement included the deaths of the two horses. Then the assumption was that it was the feed or water that might have caused it. It really was like a Dick Francis novel when the facts began to emerge.
It was a challenging day to find not only a winner but a forecast in a four horse race. The latter being a turn up for the books when Robert Goldie's (son of Jim) outsider Alexander Oats beat the favourite.
There has been some roof damage in the club end of the stand and a large section of the stand was cordoned off because of this.
Another observation worth making is the approach to race cards. Free or not free? At Musselburgh they were free but Ayr, who used to hand them out, have started charging £2 for them. The upside is that this includes a £2 voucher to use on food and coffee in any of the outlets. However the catering managers at Ayr need to go a long way to improve this side of things.
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Sunday 13 February 2011
Musselburgh 6 February 2011
This was the Scottish Cheltenham Trials Raceday at Musselburgh today and a 'first' for me on my list of national racecourses to visit.
It had been raining and blowing a gale for some days prior to the meeting and we were worried that it would get called off. Thank goodness, we actually had a reasonably dry day that cleared up as the afternoon went on.
The racing was spot on with Jim Goldie on top form in the first race bringing Wyse Hill Teabags (fancy calling a horse that !) into the winners enclosure.
The course is a small coastal course. So coastal that the sea is just over the boundary hill on the far side of the course. Musselburgh is a small town just outside Edinburgh and is the largest town in East Lothian, formerly know for its coal mining industry.
It has a mix of national hunt and flat racing. You should also check out there well constructed and attractive website
So what makes this course special ? Well, for a start, being a small course there is not a lot of space to develop. But Musselburgh Race Course have made a remarkable job with the space available. The course 'campus' is very tight but has an extraordinary variety of bars and places to eat. This variety has a quality hallmark about it and the catering managers have put a lot of thought into what they should be providing. Right down to a decent cafe serving tea and cakes. I found a bistro bar that was serving carvery meats that you could have on a platter or in a roll. Two thick slices of hot roast pork in a roll for £4.50 was just the lunch I was looking for, on the hoof, so to speak.
The tight fitting area behind the grandstand accommodates the weighing room and paddock. The latter is a modern construction which has very attractive architect designed stables. On this day we also had the added extra of Derek Thompson compering the whole meeting from the paddocks. This he did really well and it gave us an example of what good entertainment can be at a race meeting, instead of the common practice of putting on bands and singers after the meeting has finished. The highlight of his compering came after Tom Scudamore rode Hunterview to win the Scottish County Hurdle. His father, Peter Scudamore, was present and Thompson interviewed the two together. Peter Scudamore (Scu) is third behind McCoy and Dunwoody in the three all time leading jump jockeys. I was interested to see him walking over to Lucinda Russell's horse box in the paddocks where her horse Seeyaaj was being saddled. I had not realised that Scu is Lucinda's partner and assistant trainer.
Finally, the other selling point at this small course is that there is no separate club and grandstand, just one long stand (although the new Queens stand is the only offering for hospitality packages) and the limited option for staying indoors, other than to buy a drink and some food, means that punters stay outside for most of their visit.
Thanks again to my brother for supplying the tickets for us to attend this meeting.
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Ayr 3 January 2011
Greetings ! This is the start of a brand new blog about me and my days out at the races. Having stopped work at the end of 2009, part of my retirement plan was to try and visit each and every racecourse in the UK and Ireland.
Given that I have other activities to attend to in the retirement plan, and given that I don't go to a lot of race meetings normally, and given that living in Scotland means that attending every race course from Perth to Taunton will take some travelling, then my blogging will be infrequent.
Each meeting I attend will be the subject of a posting. However, I will be attending a number of courses frequently, particularly in Scotland, and more particular Ayr which is just a short distance from where I stay. This means that my postings will be archived under the course heading. The archives will then be a record of each meeting I attend.
I shall try and post a photo of each course, if not each meeting that I attend. And offer links to other sites relevant to this task.
So what is the interest in doing this ? To start with, my father was a licensed bookmaker for 40 years. Racing was a background in my upbringing, not necessarily attending meetings, my father was a turf accountant with his own office, but the conversations and language that I was brought up with centred around the sport. The first meetings we went to as a family would have been Epsom at Derby time when the fairground was set up for what was know as Derby Sunday. This was in the day when the Derby was run on a Wednesday. Later as an adult I would go to Fontwell and Plumpton with him and my mother. Then when I moved to Kent and lived near Ashford for many years in the 1970's I used to spend a lot of time at Wye racecourse which is long closed.
Bringing up a family and concentrating on a career meant that racing interest was a peripheral hobby that never took precedence. And now with time on my hands it can become a focal point of my free time.
There are too many race courses in the British Isles to be able to attend everyone in a short space of time, say a year. Therefore I am doing this at a leisurely pace and will take my time to complete the task. Postings will be infrequent and the exercise is purely personal. Although the blog will be open to the blogging public to read and make comment on, they should not lose sleep over when the next posting might be due.
What is the content likely to be about ? It will not be a list of my winnings and losses as such. It will not be a long list of information about horses. It is after all a blog about my attempt to visit each course in the UK. What it will be about is the course itself and the experience of the day. There will be a lot of anecdotal information, which readers will be able to add to or challenge. There will be opinion, particularly about the state of the course and the current trends that are currently being discussed in the press as the 'crisis in British horse racing'.
And so to my first meeting for this blog and for this year, 2011.
Ayr is a town course, surrounded by housing on the main road leading into Ayr town centre from the by pass. It is know as the Craigie course because of the area it is in and has good free car parking beside it, behind the huge Tesco's supermarket. The traditional Edwardian stand has undergone a lot of renovation recently, particularly in the interior of both the grandstand and the club enclosures. Both have spacious bars and lounge areas with cafes and a good number of Tote desks. The main entrance has a 1950's Festival of Britain feel about it but in recent months the course has stopped using the main entrance and punters are ushered in at a gate lower down for both enclosures. This will take you straight into the paddock area which is your first sight of the course.
I'm never too sure how they work out their ticket prices which might vary according to the meeting. Today was day two of a two day New Year meeting and consequently I think the prices go up. The grandstand was £15 and the Club was £21. I would normally be able to buy a £5 concessionary ticket if I booked it it seven days in advance. But today I was paying nothing because of the complimentary tickets kindly given to me by my brother who runs a betting shop in Sussex. This gave me and my wife entry to the Club. The facilities are very much the same as the Grandstand with the addition of a seated restaurant. The big difference of course is that the Club entrant is able to be on the finishing line. This is a great bonus when you are shouting your horse in but not so helpful when you are watching your horse trailing in. The paddock is accessed by punters from both stands as is the case in most race courses.
When I was attending the races in the seventies and eighties, there was usually a silver ring but my guess is that this has diminished with the fall in attendances. There is no silver ring at Ayr, and neither is there access to the centre of the course that I can see. Do many courses continue to allow this ? I know that Plumpton does. And of course Epsom which is located on public downs.
Apart from enjoying a free day at the races, I have to report that it was a very cold but not frozen day. This is because of the wind chill that was coming off the west coast and coming straight into face of the stands. I saw no one famous today, which is unusual, and saw no one that I knew, which is even more unusual in Scotland where my wife reckons that I cannot go out for a day without meeting somebody. But we had a good day with our wagers, place betting on the Tote, and only had two losing races doing this. J.S.Goldie of Glasgow was the trainer of note today, with his jockey Richie McGrath on board his winning horses.
An excellent day out.
Given that I have other activities to attend to in the retirement plan, and given that I don't go to a lot of race meetings normally, and given that living in Scotland means that attending every race course from Perth to Taunton will take some travelling, then my blogging will be infrequent.
Each meeting I attend will be the subject of a posting. However, I will be attending a number of courses frequently, particularly in Scotland, and more particular Ayr which is just a short distance from where I stay. This means that my postings will be archived under the course heading. The archives will then be a record of each meeting I attend.
I shall try and post a photo of each course, if not each meeting that I attend. And offer links to other sites relevant to this task.
So what is the interest in doing this ? To start with, my father was a licensed bookmaker for 40 years. Racing was a background in my upbringing, not necessarily attending meetings, my father was a turf accountant with his own office, but the conversations and language that I was brought up with centred around the sport. The first meetings we went to as a family would have been Epsom at Derby time when the fairground was set up for what was know as Derby Sunday. This was in the day when the Derby was run on a Wednesday. Later as an adult I would go to Fontwell and Plumpton with him and my mother. Then when I moved to Kent and lived near Ashford for many years in the 1970's I used to spend a lot of time at Wye racecourse which is long closed.
Bringing up a family and concentrating on a career meant that racing interest was a peripheral hobby that never took precedence. And now with time on my hands it can become a focal point of my free time.
There are too many race courses in the British Isles to be able to attend everyone in a short space of time, say a year. Therefore I am doing this at a leisurely pace and will take my time to complete the task. Postings will be infrequent and the exercise is purely personal. Although the blog will be open to the blogging public to read and make comment on, they should not lose sleep over when the next posting might be due.
What is the content likely to be about ? It will not be a list of my winnings and losses as such. It will not be a long list of information about horses. It is after all a blog about my attempt to visit each course in the UK. What it will be about is the course itself and the experience of the day. There will be a lot of anecdotal information, which readers will be able to add to or challenge. There will be opinion, particularly about the state of the course and the current trends that are currently being discussed in the press as the 'crisis in British horse racing'.
And so to my first meeting for this blog and for this year, 2011.
Ayr is a town course, surrounded by housing on the main road leading into Ayr town centre from the by pass. It is know as the Craigie course because of the area it is in and has good free car parking beside it, behind the huge Tesco's supermarket. The traditional Edwardian stand has undergone a lot of renovation recently, particularly in the interior of both the grandstand and the club enclosures. Both have spacious bars and lounge areas with cafes and a good number of Tote desks. The main entrance has a 1950's Festival of Britain feel about it but in recent months the course has stopped using the main entrance and punters are ushered in at a gate lower down for both enclosures. This will take you straight into the paddock area which is your first sight of the course.
I'm never too sure how they work out their ticket prices which might vary according to the meeting. Today was day two of a two day New Year meeting and consequently I think the prices go up. The grandstand was £15 and the Club was £21. I would normally be able to buy a £5 concessionary ticket if I booked it it seven days in advance. But today I was paying nothing because of the complimentary tickets kindly given to me by my brother who runs a betting shop in Sussex. This gave me and my wife entry to the Club. The facilities are very much the same as the Grandstand with the addition of a seated restaurant. The big difference of course is that the Club entrant is able to be on the finishing line. This is a great bonus when you are shouting your horse in but not so helpful when you are watching your horse trailing in. The paddock is accessed by punters from both stands as is the case in most race courses.
When I was attending the races in the seventies and eighties, there was usually a silver ring but my guess is that this has diminished with the fall in attendances. There is no silver ring at Ayr, and neither is there access to the centre of the course that I can see. Do many courses continue to allow this ? I know that Plumpton does. And of course Epsom which is located on public downs.
Apart from enjoying a free day at the races, I have to report that it was a very cold but not frozen day. This is because of the wind chill that was coming off the west coast and coming straight into face of the stands. I saw no one famous today, which is unusual, and saw no one that I knew, which is even more unusual in Scotland where my wife reckons that I cannot go out for a day without meeting somebody. But we had a good day with our wagers, place betting on the Tote, and only had two losing races doing this. J.S.Goldie of Glasgow was the trainer of note today, with his jockey Richie McGrath on board his winning horses.
An excellent day out.
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