Five Live Programme on Racing

Shadow Leader said:
Warbler - you're right; I rarely dress up for racing and even if I do I don't look a dog's dinner like a lot of women going racing nowadays. Why women insist on going racing in tiny dresses and strappy 4 inch heels I have no bloody idea. A lot of them think that making themselves go orange and wearing a strappy dress is attractive - why?! Myself and my colleagues were killing ourselves today watching two Amy Winehouse wannabes who thought they looked sexy in tiny dresses, 5 inch stilettos, plastic looking curly hair (especially in the case of the bottle blonde), make up that would have been at home in the Rocky Horror Show and orange skin. Honestly, if they'd have gotten too close to a flame they'd have melted, the pair of them.
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What puzzles me is that so many women these days don't know how to dress up for the day and go racing in evening wear. At Aintree on Ladies Day I was sitting by the main entrance near the paddock, where all the photographers gather to watch the women as they come in.

Only about a couple of dozen out of several thousand dressed up to the nines were not wearing something that would be more appropriate for a nightclub. There were some lovely outfits that would have been great for a night on the town, but very few that were suitable for a day on a cold, windy racecourse.

My taxi driver made me smile when he commented that on Ladies Day at Aintree they all going in looking a million dollars, look about 50 quid an hour by lunchtime and "I wouldn't touch 'em with me brother's" by home time.
 
Classic and smart I would have thought would be the sensible option if your going in the "posh bit" and smart but casual for the rest seems about right. I do feel it's a bit sad that some seem to turn up looking like something that should be fed to the hounds of the local hunt that paraded before the start of racing. No offence but there are times when a bit of discretion is needed and I feel racing is one of them.
 
Bar Royal Ascot, every racecourse should enforce Smart Casual in the Premier/Members and whatever you damn well want in the grandstand.

So many people are put off otherwise, gentlemen look perfectly smart in jeans, a shirt and shoes without a tie and blazer.
 
Gamla Stan said:
Bar Royal Ascot, every racecourse should enforce Smart Casual in the Premier/Members and whatever you damn well want in the grandstand.

So many people are put off otherwise, gentlemen look perfectly smart in jeans, a shirt and shoes without a tie and blazer.
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Women look better smart and casually dressed too and it is much better than the flesh that is drifting southwards being revealed.
 
krizon said:
Sighs deeply... no, LE and SL, it's £25 for a CAR at South Godstone. I went once, got charged £25, asked if that was right because there was only me in it, and yes, that's right, one or 120 of you in it, Madam, it's £25. Hence, no repeat visits, thank you. Look it up if you don't believe me.
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No need to have a go, Krizon - both myself and LE pointed out to you that it is now often the case that single occupants go in for £10. We weren't disbelieving you, we weren't saying you were lying, we were correcting your assertion that at ALL point to points you have to pay £25 a car regardless of whether there are 5 people or 1 person in it. So please read posts properly before getting snippy and sarcastic! I see that as it happens, LE has already discovered that at Godstone what you encountered is now not the case anyway so I'm sure you'll be happy now!

I'm sorry that you don't like point to pointing but your descriptions of what it is all about and the hatchet job you did on the sport is way off beam as well as wholly inaccurate. Personally, I'd prefer a day at a point to point much more than going to watch crappy sand racing at a dive like Lingfield comprised of horses that even if they stayed the trip in a point to point they'd probably still be too slow but hey-ho, we all like different things!

GS - I'm assuming that you're well aware that the fee you pay to park at a point to point is your entrance fee?
 
I'm sure PTP horses would be quick enough for a lap of Lingfield against 60 odd rated animals too... :rolleyes:
 
People should be allowed to wear whatever they want to go racing, regardless of the venue or the importance of the meeting.

I don't think there is a dress code for any day or any enclosure at Longchamp.

People will eventually do as they do in Paris: dress smartly because they want to, not because they're required to.

I'd take the exec of any course that insists on dress codes and line them up against the wall and shoot the b&stards.

Vive la révolution.
 
Spot on DO, everyone is very well presented on Arc weekend and there is no dress code. Admitedly, it's a slightly more refined culture but still.

Warbler's run in with Thirsk amused me the most, a tie in members on a Monday night at a shithole like Thirsk?!

Glorious Goodwood needs dragging into the 21st century too.
 
Shadow, if you'd like to read MY posts before doing a pot-and-kettle job on me, you'll see I specified SOUTH GODSTONE - I didn't mention 'all' ptp's, so you can climb down off that high horse you're clambering onto. You and LE were saying I was wrong, but no, I wasn't wrong about that place at all, or its 'amenities' or the number of animals it fielded. But hey, have a bellow, if you like - I couldn't care less, I'm not going again until perhaps it is only a tenner a head to get in, but as it ain't, I rest my case. Even at a tenner, you aren't getting anything like the number of animals and amenities that the current entrance fee at Lingfield gets you, so I think that that's still overpriced. A fiver, yes, for what's actually on offer.

About the issue of dress codes: frankly, I don't want to see some pot-bellied pig without a shirt on, with a hairy arse-crack showing every time he bends over to pick another can out of his picnic six-pack, thanks all the same. That's (almost) fine at the beach, where there's always a sporting chance someone will yell "Thar he blows!" and harpoon him, but I can well do without billowing hairy flesh at a day at the races - and that goes for some of the wimminfolk, too. The question of what's taste and what's tat lies very much in the eye of the beholder, but spare me untrammelled and ungirdled porkers or even Iggy Pop look-alikes, please!
 
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Desert Orchid said:
People should be allowed to wear whatever they want to go racing, regardless of the venue or the importance of the meeting.

I don't think there is a dress code for any day or any enclosure at Longchamp.

People will eventually do as they do in Paris: dress smartly because they want to, not because they're required to.

I'd take the exec of any course that insists on dress codes and line them up against the wall and shoot the b&stards.

Vive la révolution.
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Totally agree. I think I'm right in saying you don't get any of that sort of sh1te in Scotland even in members.
 
I agree with the wear what you like. Cheltenham specifies smart casual for Members but points out that visitors would do well to dress for the weather, which is often inclement.
 
Kri, my exact words were "As LE says, often if the car contains only one person, the cost is £10." (you were adamant that ALL point to points cost £25 to get in, no matter how many in the car) and I don't see anything telling you that you were wrong and you didn't pay £25 nor can I see any references to Godstone at all until you bring it up in your next post! Maybe you misread my post - in saying I can't agree with you I meant I can't agree with your whole idea of what point to pointing involves. I also didn't comment on the amenities it fielded, or the number of animals involved, let alone disagree with your view on them so maybe you should get some new specs!

Point to points are not all about "ancient old ex-chasers and some distinctly slow nags" and I'm sorry that you clearly missed the young horses on offer in the maidens as well as the restricteds and confineds. In fact, if point to pointing is only about ancient old chasers and distonctly slow nags how come horses like Denman and Best Mate (and hundreds of others if anyone cared to think about it for 5 minutes) originated from the sphere, having gained their early education from it?
 
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krizon said:
Shadow, if you'd like to read MY posts before doing a pot-and-kettle job on me, you'll see I specified SOUTH GODSTONE - I didn't mention 'all' ptp's, so you can climb down off that high horse you're clambering onto. You and LE were saying I was wrong, but no, I wasn't wrong about that place at all, or its 'amenities' or the number of animals it fielded. But hey, have a bellow, if you like - I couldn't care less, I'm not going again until perhaps it is only a tenner a head to get in, but as it ain't, I rest my case. Even at a tenner, you aren't getting anything like the number of animals and amenities that the current entrance fee at Lingfield gets you, so I think that that's still overpriced. A fiver, yes, for what's actually on offer.
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Sorry but did you actually read the quote I put on from Jumping for Fun forum, which is in fact written by the clerk of the course/or secretary from Godstone that it IS £10 if you are on your own in a car. Maybe when you went years ago It was but not anymore the P2Ps have an unwritten agreement with the association and you will find that most will only charge a tenner, £15 at the most. Yes maybe the facilities aren't great, and horses aren't up to Cheltenham standard, but its an amatuer sport, to raise money for the hunt. But thats fine, your opinion, I enjoy it anyway, no drunks to fight your way through, no expensive bars, no overpriced entry fee, no one on gates telling where you can or cant go.
 
Gamla Stan said:
I'm sure PTP horses would be quick enough for a lap of Lingfield against 60 odd rated animals too... :rolleyes:
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Actually, they would! I've ridden in pieces of work around a circuit at Lingfield where a 65 rated animal - and a good workhorse as well! - has been beaten by point to pointers.

Next!
 
LE: I will ask Tim next time he's in at Lingfield and I guarantee to buy you and Shadz an elephant-sized vodka (or drink of choice) if I'm wrong! I didn't go that many years ago - 2007, I think! The man/wife team who control the O/Ts Bar at Lingers are staunch South-East supporters, too, the husband hunting with the Southdown & Erridge, so I can canvass them as to any reduction in entrance price since then. I'll be delighted if it's just a tenner, although the biggest prob was finding a day to go which didn't clash with racing commitments.

What I did find odd was how reluctant it was to promote itself - I used to have to remind and remind and remind the women at Fontwell Park who were involved with the South-East to bring in their promotional leaflets, and I've honestly given up asking for them for the entrance and bars at Lingfield! There's only so much you can do in the face of apparent apathy!
 
That's nice. Have you also had a well-whiskered warty, to stimulate your leedle grey cells?

This was a family joke - following a rare evening out with friends, my parents returned home, my father pleasantly lit up and my mother in a priggish strop, because her one gin-and-orange and his couple of beers and a Scotch hadn't resulted in an even match of mood. My father attempted to hang up his suit, dropped the jacket, fumbled about with the pants, until my mother snapped. "Oh, for goodness sake!" she hissed, "Leave them alone! You're drunk!" With that, she tried to push him aside, but caused him to fall into the walk-in closet, resulting in him pulling all his clothes off the rails, and lying helplessly among the shoes. According to her account later, he looked up beseechingly, and cried, "But darling - I've only had a well-whiskered warty!"

(The prudishness fell away once she'd ensconced herself in Bahrain, though, where nary a weekend passed without her indulging a late-onset passion for large voddies.)
 
In fairness Kri, the issue of single occupancy has only been widespreadly addressed within the last few years; maybe Godstone were one of the last to adopt the policy.

Always willing to accept an elephant sized vodka though!!!

I tell you what Kri - if I have a runner down your way; Godstone or somewhere like that, I'll see if I can get a guest/owner badge for you in the hope that you could enjoy a days pointing and see its good bits. Sound fair enough?
 
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