Do you remember your first visit to a racecourse?

E

EC21

Conditional
Joined
Jul 5, 2022
Messages
541
Location
Derbyshire
The first time I ever went to a racecourse after watching racing for about 10 years was to York with a work mate in I think 1984, Thursday of the Ebor meeting.

After 10 years of backing horses, and only really seeing races on the TV at weekends or special mid week stuff, because betting shops were mainly extel commentary then. It was a revelation to actually see horses in the flesh, watch them finish a race from near the finish at ground level.

The first real view of racing really made a mark on me. I had this thing that by never seeing it in real life, that it wasn't real, it was just TV real, if you get that.

You actually got up really close and obviously experienced what it was really like then.

TV racing coverage has changed a lot since then, you are virtually there aren't you now in high def?

In the 70s + 80s if you never went racing, you just got what TV did then, it was good, but not like really being there.
 
Last edited:
Pointing it would have been the South Tetcott meet in about 1985/6 - god knows where that was though. “Proper” racing I’d guess would have been Salisbury with my dad - my parents didn’t drive, so it would have to have been somewhere accessable by bus…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Donny, a bank holiday around 1972. Knew little about the game then but Nice Music, a David Robinson owned colt knocked my eye out. Duly dotted up (c13/8, as I recall) and I was hooked by my meagre winnings.
 
From a thread from last year:

Desert Orchid said:
My first trip to any racecourse was to Hamilton. My father decided to treat me to the day for my 18th birthday (September 1973, so just before I started uni) knowing I was a 'seasoned punter' by then :lol: (He'd have been disappointed if he'd known I was also a seasoned pubgoer!)

Back then every course had dozens of Tote windows with 10p the minimum stake. I think I afforded myself £2 punting money for the day.

My next-older brother (the one I refer to on here as 'the brother') was a big fan of Brian Connorton so when I saw him on a 33/1 shot in one of the early races I decided I might as well have a wee punt at a nice price. I put 10p place-only on the horse, reckoning I'd be happy with about 80p profit if it managed a place, which it did - third. To our astonishment, it paid 28/1 and I felt pretty flush. That was about the same as I could expect to get from my commission on my Friday evening Vernons Pools round.

And as I said elsewhere, in those days at around 12p for a pint of 'heavy' that was a good return.
Click to expand...
 
Cheltenham in a push chair as I was born there and we lived in Prestbury. Also my dad was one of the racecourse vets for many years.

My first bet on a racecourse was aged six when I had a winning bet at Howick point to point. I bet on a horse called Silver Two as I thought it was a grey and I was into greys and princesses etc. Anyway there was a close finish between a grey and a bay and the bay was called the winner. Turned out he was Silver Two and I won 60p. I was completely and utterly hooked then and there and announced to my parents that I was going to train racehorses one day :)
 
The first would have beeen Tehidy in Cornwall for the Four Burrow PTP in around 1970

First time for NH was the Cheltenham GC day in 1991. Knew nothing about the game (not much change since) and was more into the dogs in those days. I managed to back Garrison Savannah and my mates said I’d only sone so because I thought it was the 5 dog (orange jacket)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ayr - Scottish national 1995. My boss organised a coach trip of 40 from the work. What a **** up!

Incidentally - I've met up with the same boss for Cheltenham every year since.
 
reet hard said:
Donny, a bank holiday around 1972. Knew little about the game then but Nice Music, a David Robinson owned colt knocked my eye out. Duly dotted up (c13/8, as I recall) and I was hooked by my meagre winnings.
Click to expand...

Same course for me & around that time too. I've no idea of any names (which probably means that all my bets were losers) but I think it could have been an evening meeting. Went to Donny a few times after that initial visit & can remember le coq d'or winning in a small field at a big price one of the times but not much else.
 
Last edited:
St Hilary Cowbridge p-to-p about 1962, my Godfather took me. My Father told me 'Buy a programme see who is the MFH and bet what his son/daughter rides in the members..... He didn't warn me that the daughter may have married and have a different surname!
 
Liscarroll p2p early 1970s.
My father had a horse running called Billy The Kid, whose dam Sissie VI won five or six p2ps in her day.
Poor Billy was a poor doer and an average horse; he may have been placed once or twice but not that day.
A photo of my father leading in Sissie after one of her victories hangs in The Alley Bar ,Kanturk if you are ever passing by.
 
1984 at the old Phoenix Park racecourse , Saddlers Wells won the Champion Stakes , I think Bob Champion was also there signing books but could be wrong on the last bit ,that could of been another day . I was only 7 at the time .
 
Last edited:
Yarmouth in August 1981. A racecourse “character” was selling three tips for 40p - which proved irresistible to us group of 17-year-olds. One winner from the tips, and we all lost a few quid.
 
Galway Plate Day, 1965, Age 7. My dad told us that English Champion jockey Stan Mellor was over to ride Ross Sea in the big race for Phonsie O’Brien, and he had been advised to back it. He said we could each have a half crown bet, either a win or a place. My brothers all chose to settle for a place bet but I insisted on going for a win. Lo and behold Ross Sea wins, I get a pound back and they each got five bob. It was a rare moment of triumph for me over my bigger brothers.

I liked horses anyway and always got on well with them, but that was the day I caught the racing bug. Visits to Galway races were an annual event after that and then in my teens I started going to my local track in Dublin, Phoenix Park. I rarely missed a meeting there in the 1980s, including the Sadlers Wells race mentioned above by BigRob, which was the inaugural running of the Irish Champions Stakes in its present guise as a Group 1.

Going back to Stan Mellor, the story goes that he arrived at his hotel the night before the race and met Phonsie and the other connections of the horse. When he introduced himself and then said he had better turn in in order to be fresh for the race, a glass of whiskey was pressed into his hand and he wasn’t allowed upstairs until the small hours. We mightn’t have entrusted our pennies to backing him if we’d known that.
 
Last edited:
Probably not my first visit to a racecourse but the first track I went to was my local track Uttoxeter: all of my visits there tend to blend into each other.But I’ve just looked up a horse called Patchouli’s Pet: I can still picture him walking round the paddock. Looking at his race record he achieved absolutely nothing: never even won a race. Died as an 18 or 19 year old. I wonder if he realises up there in horsey heaven that someone still remembers him with fondness? I also remember being a bit scared of Jenny Pitman and almost falling over The Duchess of Westminster who had a horse running there ( she was very tiny) and realising how classless and inclusive racing was. And I was bowled over by seeing a horse who was sired by Mill Reef.
 
Probably first time to races would be Balcormo (annual point-to-point in Fife) aged about 4 or 5 - we went every year as kids. The first real racecourse would be Perth maybe in the earlyish 80's - my dad's aunt and uncle lived in Scone, really close to the racecourse and we used to go every year to visit them in the summer holidays, usually on a raceday as my great uncle loved the races and liked company to go with. I still think Perth is a lovely race course to visit, very friendly, as is Musselburgh which is my other 'local' track - although both require an hours drive to get to.
 
Can you take dogs to Musselborough? We go to Kelso a lot as it’s the only track within travelling distance that allows dogs. Our previous dog happily stayed at home but current one is a bit if a lockdown dog.
 
moehat said:
Can you take dogs to Musselborough? We go to Kelso a lot as it’s the only track within travelling distance that allows dogs. Our previous dog happily stayed at home but current one is a bit if a lockdown dog.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've definitely seen dogs there before (and just checked their site - it's fine as long as dogs are on a lead)
 
Back
Top