Good news! More bums on seats!

krizon

krizon

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Just caught up with this item dated 3 November on the (British) Racecourse Association's website - against all the doom 'n' gloom, British racing saw an overall increase in attendance of 3.6% to date, versus the 2009 figures. Average daily attendance was 4,513 from 4,351.

Highlights are: gate receipts increased in April (all comparisons are 09 to 10 to date) by 7.3% and a whopping 10.1% in July.

Showcase meetings all exceeded their 2009 attendances: that's Cheltenham's Festival, the Grand National meeting, the Derby, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood, the Ebor and the St Leger meetings.

York, Chester and Newbury experienced record numbers at the summer Saturday meetings, with Newbury selling out completely when putting on their Westlife concert. Yorkshire's summer racing festival involving nine courses attracted a massive combined turnout of 101,705, while Thirsk went up 4.2% over 2009, and Carlisle's July family festival saw 11,000 turn out versus 3,000 last year.

Racing for Change's week of free racing with nine courses, including Ascot and Goodwood, attracted an extra 40,000 compared to 2009's attendances, and researchers found that over 60% of this number was new to the sport.

Not bad during a recession!
 
Excellent news and probably not as surprising to me on this side of the Irish Sea as the facilities on the courses I have been to in the UK (York Ascot Aintree Cheltenham Haydock Ayr and Musslebrough) are top class in comparison to ours here in Ireland. Each course makes a huge effort to welcome racegoers and if you are lucky enough to be an owner then an extra effort is made forward posting car park tickets, maps, tourist info, meal and drinks vouchers etc. We could learn quite a lot about attracting and keeping new racegoers from the UK courses. The answer in Ireland is to put on a best dressed ladies competition at every meeting! I mean come on!!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
We're a bit skinny on giving owners free nosh, though. Only Ayr gets full credit for giving owners a full, free lunch, although everywhere does give them at least one tea or coffee - I managed to nag Brighton into doing all-day free tea/coffee, but I've only got Lingfield to give them one cup so far! However, for the AW season it is giving owners a cut-price full nosh for a tenner, provided they book in advance and their horses are running on weekdays, and only four people per horse.

I wish I'd won that £113m on the Euromills, as I had a cunning plan to buy at least one course and show the rest how you really treat owners! Curses - foiled! My £7 return on three numbers was a start, but not quite enough.
 
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At Haydock you often get a 3 course lunch with Champagne in the winter months, Sandown and Ascot are also very good, but most courses' treatment of owners is pretty shite.
 
A cuppa and a couple of biccies is more than adequate for me but if a course is prepared to push the boat out I aint going to complain.

Indeed Haydock did provide a meal when I was there last Thursday.
During the summer you get a sandwich and some pasta from them which is fine.

Not a patch though on Ayr which really did us proud with the meal they offered when we had a runner there last year,serious plaudits to a course which doesn't get a lot of positive feedback.

The Curragh was also excellent a couple of years back.
 
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Aintree, Cheltenham and Sandown have really looked after us this season with a lovely meal. On the other hand,Worcester,now closed for the Winter,give you a voucher for tea ,coffe and a bun, but this doesn`t include Cappucino which you have to pay for.
 
I hang my head in shame on behalf of Lingfield, Roddy, where the barman grumpily demands an extra 20p for the pleasure of either a large coffee versus the standard cup, or 50p for the cappucino. It just comes across as cheese-paringly mean.
 
Roddy Owen said:
Aintree, Cheltenham and Sandown have really looked after us this season with a lovely meal. On the other hand,Worcester,now closed for the Winter,give you a voucher for tea ,coffe and a bun, but this doesn`t include Cappucino which you have to pay for.
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My experience also - I've had a runner at Aintree and was given a full carvery and the suite was excellent with great viewing.

Worcester, well I won't go into it but I wouldn't rush back.

Uttoxeter didn't lay on a meal for us but they really tried to look after us giving us a box and complimentary drinks to watch the race from.

Kikos hasn't managed to get to Cheltenham and its unlikely he will!!! I don't think he'd ever make it up the hill!!! :rolleyes:
 
We usually provide an owners' viewing area at Lingfield, but I note that a lot of courses don't, simply because it's good viewing space they can hire out for huge prices.
 
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