It was a mixed experience at “Scotland’s premier racecourse”, much like the unsettled weather on “Family Fun Day”.
Last Sunday I finally had the opportunity to visit Ayr Racecourse, which bills itself as “Scotland’s premier racecourse”. This race day wasn’t ‘premium’ but I was keen to go racing at a place where I rarely back any winners.
Ayr is only a short 40 minutes trip by train from Glasgow, situated on the southwest coast of Scotland and therefore quite accessible. I flew in from Dublin to Glasgow International Airport in the morning, then walked to Paisley train station and a £12.50 Off-Peak Day Return ticket brought me all the way down to sleepy Ayr on this drizzly Sunday morning.
There’s enough time for a hearty breakfast (The West Kirk, a Wetherspoon, but architecturally exciting as it’s a converted church), a chilled IPA ( Willie Wastles Sports Bar) and a leisurely stroll through town before hitting the racecourse.
Racecourse Experience
It’s £25 through the gate. Steep for a day full of screaming children – it’s “Family Fun Day” – and a bunch of class 5 and 6 races. My biggest bugbear is that an early bird offer was available: £20, which is much fairer – however, the website didn’t allow me to complete the booking with an Irish address. Reaching out to the racecourse via e-mail didn’t yield a response. Disappointing.
That aside, the racecourse is certainly mostly gorgeous with its old Victorian-style stands, the old clock towering over the grandstand and the pretty flat racecourse that’s 100% observable for the racegoer from the stands.
A big screen was available and added to the racing experience, especially for someone who’s into the actual sport: great viewing from the stands, supported by decent binoculars and the screen, made the actual racing experience work well for me.
I loved the large parade ring as well: you can simply walk to the end of it, where the pre-parade ring is located as well, to get a full view of the horses in the preliminaries right until they leave for the track from there.
The inside part of the stands has a number of bars for drinks – I never had to wait long in line – and ample opportunity to sit and follow the action on the screens from there.
Food & Drink
I’m conflicted. The drinks were seriously good value in this day and age: £5 for a lager, and £5.50 for a Guinness. The variety of food offerings were decent, if not great.
Pricing generally fair for a racecourse, although the coffee prices for a regular cup, which is still rather small in my view, is quite excessive – though that’s the case at most racecourses – especially as the coffee is basically brown water.
I felt truly ripped off at the Ice Cream van where I ordered a small single cone with a sprinkle of chocolate sauce for £4.50, which is a lot of money for a small cone. It was literally the tiniest bit of chocolate sauce to the point where it was barely noticeable at all – which says something because the small single cone was certainly tiny.
The worst part: I only realised it later after I checked my banking app, was getting charged £5.00 (which would have been a ‘regular’ single cone) instead of £4.50.
Expectations are low when buying ice cream at a racecourse. I know it’s overpriced; and yet I got quite a few here in Ireland over the last weeks. It’s a treat. But the ice cream van at Ayr took it to new hights. Sure, it could have been an honest mistake… still not a great experience.
Odds of Return
2/1
Overall it was an enjoyable experience; probably for a racing fan like myself, it would be even more enjoyable on a day that’s not called “Family Fun Day”.
Given the quality of racing isn’t always brilliant and entry is on the steep side, this feels more like one “seen it, done it, next one” I don’t mind coming back one day, most likely that’s not too soon, though.
It’s been on my bucket list for a while: finally I made it to Brighton – a racecourse that looks marvellous on TV with its sweeping turns and the blue sea looming large in the background.
I must start with a proper bugbear: £17 admission for a card with only six races, all class 6, is ‘taking the piss’. Perhaps quality-wise this was the worst raceday I’ve ever been to. Only three of those six races attracted eight runners on the day – shocking stuff; is anyone really surprised the sport is in decline with the public?
In fairness, as a flat racing fan, I found the study for all the six races rewarding, as they were – at the very least – quite competitive and intriguing for their low grade. Which didn’t make it any easier finding the winners, truth told.
For me going over from Dublin for a day-trip, getting to the racecourse was a smooth experience : a quick flight over in the morning to Gatwick, then the train down to the coast, and a 35-minute leisurely walk through Brighton.
Racecourse Experience
First things first: I absolutely love this racecourse! It intrigued me whenever watching racing on TV, and in reality the place is as picturesque as it gets – Brighton could be forcing its way into my personal top-3 of racecourses.
Simply fabulous, Brighton offers everything I love and want from a racecourse – perhaps, bar the missing ice cream van, especially on a hot day.
Of course, it helps when the sun is shining: It’s June and it felt like summer. Appreciated, especially as I returned to a cold and miserable Ireland in the evening, mind – so I really would have loved an ice cream as well!
The closeness of everything is perfect at Brighton. It makes it a cosy place to walk around, get a pint, a burger, watch the horses in the parade ring, take a seat alongside the winning post and walk up to the stand and watch the racing with the sensational scenery in the background.
I imagine it can get crammed and uncomfortable on the bigger days when the place is packed; though, for this low-grade Monday afternoon the course was well attended, and created a lovely, relaxed atmosphere.
The views from the grandstand are magnificent. The rolling hills, the sea in the background and the majority of the track observable with binoculars, plus a big screen to follow the action – this is a wonderful place to watch racing.
Food & Drink
Unfortunately it’s customary at British racetracks that you pay through your nose. Brighton isn’t different, to the most part – for example £3.50 for a small, industrially manufactured chocolate brownie. Saying that, a decent burger for €8 pounds is nearly fair in this climate, and a pint of Hobgoblin IPA for £6.30 most likely a steal!
Brighton is a small track, and on low-grade day as this, only half the bars in stand are manned. No problem, I never had to wait long to get a drink. The variety of offerings wasn’t great, but that might be different on bigger days.
Positive is the ample space outside alongside the rails or parade ring to sit down to eat and drink… or simply to soak up the sun.
Odds of Return
4/6
Brighton is a wonderful place to go racing. The easy access, the views, the lovely grandstand, the cosiness – I’ll be back, for sure. Obviously, especially on low-grade day, admission isn’t cheap. That’s a the main thing I didn’t appreciate.
Groundhog Day: low attendance & poor racegoer experience – the Curragh is in the news for all the wrong reasons yet again.
Irish flat racing HQ staged the 3-day “Irish Guineas Festival” last weekend. A superb package of top-class racing, that included the first Classic races of the new season, as well as an additional five Group races.
Tickets were comparably cheap (€20 early bid), especially compared to other top-class sporting events (or admission to many UK racecourses). And yet, very few turned up to watch Lake Victoria romping home in the 1000 Guineas on Sunday, or a day earlier Field Of Gold getting his stylish redemption in the Irish 2000 Guineas.
No doubt, the shocking weather didn’t help to entice punters to go racing and brave the elements – a tragedy, because the racing was superb. But who can blame those who stayed home: the Curragh isn’t a great place to be at when the weather doesn’t play its part. That’s one of the disappointing facts about this shiny new facility that cost upward of €70 million to redevelop.
However, even in previous years, when the weather gods provided somewhat kinder conditions, attendance figures on Guineas weekend (3 days) didn’t make for pretty reading: 14.088 (2024), 14.773 (2023) and 12.700 (2022). Neither 2000 Guineas Saturday- or 1000 Guineas Sunday broke the 6.000 mark during this period.
This isn’t a once-off phenomenon – it’s a new normal for racing at the Curragh. Attendance for the Derby is anywhere between 10-13k these days, a dramatic decline from 2015, the final Derby run at the Curragh before the redevelopment, that saw a whopping 25.225 huddling around the parade ring to get a glimpse of Jack Hobbs.
Surely, nobody wants to try and rewrite history in an attempt to romanticise the old Curragh. It was a kip when it got finally demolished; walls could tell stories of yesteryear, electric cables dangling dangerously loose in the wind above the heads of racegoers, and the cramming inside the betting hall around the small TVs put those with claustrophobia in a state of paralysis.
Nonetheless, I used to be a member at the old Curragh and I loved the old, shabby place. The available space was rather well utilised to the most part, there was a logic flow through the track for the racegoer and even though the parade ring was a lot smaller than the new one, you still saw the horses!
Perhaps I am romanticising the old Curragh?!
The annual membership was affordable and provided dedicated parking, quick access to the track, a charming members bar overlooking the finish line, a designated members area to watch the racing with the best view across the track, and the occasional side offerings like trips to Coolmore Stud.
Back then the membership was about €180 and seriously good value, even if you couldn’t go every time they raced. In 2025 the membership fee stands at a whopping €350 (mind, when they reponed it was ‘only’ €265…. call that inflation?!).
Granted, that’s still not bad value if you go to all the 24 days. But who does that? Very few. It’s a steep price. In the past it was decent value even if you only went 10-12 times a year, plus the added perks made it worthwhile. Not so much these days.
Anecdotally (I would love to see official figures) the Curragh lost members during the rebuild (when they offered temporary facilities but charged full price, nonetheless) and certainly in subsequent years, due to the significant price hike.
The sad reality is, members or not, ever since the reopening of the redeveloped Curragh, people have voted with their feet and stayed largely away. The drop in attendance for marquee race days, as highlighted earlier, is nothing less than dramatic.
That’s strange, because logic would dictate that a new, modern facility would encourage more and not less people to attend fixtures.
While the official attendance figures for last weekend haven’t been released yet, it’s hard to believe they’ll be any better than the aforementioned figures in 2023 or 2024.
I was there and it didn’t feel a busy on Saturday. It’s certainly eye-opening when AK Bets outlines in their excellent The Racing Room Podcast that they took merely 95 and 55 on the two Classic days. On the lesser days, the place is basically deserted.
The question is: why? Why do people vote with their feet? It can’t be the price point: admission is incredibly affordable, even for the best days of racing at the Curragh – I want to highlight that as a clear positive (while I remain critical of the pricing for the membership) – the early bird offerings are superb value for money. €20 for the 2000 Guineas, €25 for the Irish Derby, for example.
The place hasn’t moved. It’s where its always been. Getting to it is possibly by public transport via bus or train and subsequent shuttle busses, albeit not as plain a sailing as it could be – I did that many years while living in Dublin. Car parking is free onsite. Food and drink, while not cheap, is competitively priced in comparison to rugby, football or GAA.
Why then the dramatic drop-off in attendance? From my personal experience the often cited pain points with the new Curragh mirror the ones I see as well:
Poor design and use of the space available – some key areas feel overcrowded even if overall attendance is low.
Parade ring isn’t a great place for viewing the horses ((despite having been redone!).
Main hall inside the stand gives the vibe of a train station or airport arrival hall.
Not enough seating available inside.
The roof’s still whistling furiously in windy conditions.
Poor protection from the elements in the grandstand.
Some of these criticisms are possibly harsh and contradictory. Racing is an outdoor sport, you can expect to get wet if you want see the horses in the parade ring.
On the other hand, where money’s spend (especially tax-payers money) an expectation of excellence follows. And this expectation of excellence isn’t met at the new Curragh. Be it the roof, be it the facilities inside, be it the poorly designed parade ring.
It’s also hard to imagine that the place could pack more than 15.000. It would be total carnage, with multiple bottlenecks and poor crowd flow. Even with only 10.000 onsite, these issues persist when previously at the old site 20.000 could fit relatively comfortably.
I want to be fair and balanced, and give credit to recent attempts to improve the experience. New marquee tents, food vans, a SPAR inside, more tables and seats. Admission has been made more affordable. So, something is done. Yet, it’s not enough to make you want to spend half a day there. It remains a cold, windy and rather uncomfortable place. Smaller, older tracks around the country do it much better.
Perhaps, for plenty of people the habit of going racing at the Curragh got broken during the redevelopment phase as well. Some never got back into the habit. Some returned once or twice and didn’t enjoy the experience. They’ve never been back.
There’s also a considerable lack of visibility inside the Kildare community. I live in Naas. It’s a 15min drive down the M7 for me. I can’t recall having seen any marketing for the Guineas Festival. Unless you’re a racing fan, you probably wouldn’t have known there’s two of the most important races in the Irish flat racing calendar taking place over the weekend.
Personally, I can’t offer many solutions. Saying that, it’s not my job. I only speak as a racing fan and from my personal experience. And that experience hasn’t been great.
I feel the bird has flown, and the glory days will never return. Flat racing has never been that popular in Ireland. Nonetheless, there shouldn’t be an obvious reason why attendances at the Curragh have dropped so dramatically since the redevelopment, when plenty other sports are thriving in the post-covid era.
There shouldn’t be one obvious reason. Yet there are multiple obvious reasons for the decline. And they are self-inflicted. The blame lies firmly with the racecourse management. It seems, as populist as this may sound: the track has been build for those in the posh seats, with us peasants (aka the average racegoer) forgotten.
I always wanted to get a first-hand experience of Hamilton Park, a track where horses come to a near standstill in the closing stages thanks to a notorious stiff finish to the line.
Last weekend the opportunity for a maiden visit to Hamilton Park finally presented itself: that’s UK racecourse #17 ticked off the list for me. This May 4th visit coincided with the tracks opener for the in 2025 and was also billed as “Family Day”.
It showed: Hamilton Park was rammed with families. Screaming kids everywhere. The place was packed, perhaps the balmy spring weather a great help to get people through the turnstiles as well.
So here’s a quick report of my day at Hamilton Park, and a final assessment of what are the odds of me returning in this life.
Let’s Go Racing
Situated just outside of Glasgow, getting to Hamilton is pretty straightforward: for me that meant catching a flight at 6.50am in Dublin, arriving with ample time for a breakfast fry in Glasgow, before then catching the train from Glasgow Central to Hamilton West, a 30-minute ride with ScotRail.
The £6 for the off-peak return ticket felt fair (plus £16.50 for the luxury of taking the airport express bus to Glasgow city centre).
It’s another 25-minute walk from the station to Hamilton Park – not the most scenic walk, that’s for sure – though, I took a little detour through a rather deserted Hamilton on that Sunday morning.
In any case, as far as travel to a racetrack goes, Hamilton Park is generally quite easy to get to with public transport, and that’s a big plus for me.
Not a Cheap Day
An adult ticket purchased in advance was £27. That’s okay for British racing, but feels steep compared to Ireland, given this was a bog-standard day with the one class 3 Handicap as the ‘feature race’.
In comparison: ‘Early Bird’ tickets for Irish 2000 Guineas or Irish Derby day cost €20 and €25 respectively. Irish Champions Weekend Saturday – arguably one of the best days of flat racing in the world – is still cheaper than the ticket for Hamilton.
I know one can’t compare like for like necessarily. But I do feel it will come to bite the sport in the UK sooner rather than later that parts of society are effectively priced out of it.
And it doesn’t stop with getting through the door. The rip-off proper starts inside. I was gobsmacked by the prices for food and drink. Yes, it’s a sporting event, things cost more there, yet it seems bonkers that you have to pay £7.30 for bad lager, or £12 for a pretty simple Chicken Burger (without chips – those are a fiver on top!).
Three thin donut rings with a glaze of sugar? £4.60. The seven quid for a the Guinness in a plastic cup was nearly “value for money” at that rate.
And let’s not forget going racing without having a bet isn’t really an option for many people, either. So it all adds up: a day at the races is expensive.
That’s nothing new, and it’s not really an issue for me, truth told – I’ll continue to fly over to go racing in Britain, simply. because I love the sport.
Nonetheless, I wish racecourses (not all, but a majority) wouldn’t “take the piss” if it comes to prices for food, drink and or even the cost of entry and having a decent view of the action.
Rant over.
The Racing Experience
The Class 3 Handicap over 1m 5f and Class 2 Novice Stakes over the extended mile were the highlights on the card that offered seven races in total, with a bunch of lower grade handicaps filling the rest of the card.
Sallaal, the winner of the Novice Stakes looked a smart prospect. The 91 rated son of Frankel could go on to do better things, although he seemed quite unruly during the preliminaries, having unseated the rider and needed to be walked all the way to the post.
I truly enjoyed the compact nature of Hamilton Park. The distances between pre-parade- and parade ring, and then to the grandstand, are short. Bars and facilities always close. Betting ring right in front of the stand.
There is one stand, the views are fine from there, except the initial part of the loop when horses turn left for the longer races, everything else is visible, and the long straight with the horses climbing the last 2 furlongs makes provides an excellent view of how each race unfolds when it matters most.
Obviously I don’t know what’s the experience on a normal day, perhaps family day didn’t help, but a few me opportunities to sit and relax would have been welcomed.
The small restaurant and bar/betting shop area inside the grandstand were always full to the brim and it was impossible to find a spot to sit and just sip a coffee or beer while studying the racecard. A small coffee van. like it’s present at most Irish tracks, would have been nice too.
Odds of Return
2/1
Overall I enjoyed my visit to Hamilton Park. The weather helped, and while it was packed, it never felt too uncomfortable, except the lack of options to sit. I mentioned my gripes with costs of going racing here, specially given this wasn’t a “Premier” day.
I wouldn’t mind to be back one day. If I never get back in this life, it won’t be a big issue, either. Maybe not on “Family Day”, though. The view from the stand of the long straight is class, and the compact nature of the course ideal.
It’s St Brigid’s Day, which marks the the beginning of spring, and I can certainly feel a spring in my step, knowing the days get longer, the sun is supposed to show itself more often from now on, and the flat season isn’t too far away, either.
It’s a low-key racing day in Ireland, where today is also a public holiday, as well as the usual stuff in the UK on a typical Monday during the winter months. But I’ve got some spare time on my hands and found two decent looking bets to try and make the day pay, nonetheless.
Looking 5km to the south from where I live, lies Punchestown. It’s not a card that gets me out of the door to get myself over there today, but the 4.10 Mares Handicap Hurdle appears to shape like an intriguing race.
In this race over 2m 7f it should pay dividends to be close to the pace, given more than half the field may not want to be to soon in front.
Slotty Dotty and Slim Marvel, currently first and second favourite in the betting, could be ideally placed, while No Fussing, who also features prominently in the market, could be left with a lot to do when it matters most.
Slotty Dotty, thanks to her recent course win, stares as the natural favourite. However, despite that commanding 7 lengths victory over 2m 6f, it was a poor race, and she has to define a 10lb hike in her mark also.
Slim Marvel in contrast drops into an easier race after a superb runner-up effort from out of the weights at Cork over todays trip, beaten behind a winner who was highly tried subsequently.
She won a maiden hurdle in July and was placed off 102 and 104 (107 effectively) and this is only her sixth handicap run, and the first time on this type of deep ground. She was placed in maiden hurdle on heavy going, though.
There could be improvement to come in these conditions over this trip, given ran well to the the line, jumped and travelled strongly, and was only beaten by a better quality of horse, that she is unlikely to meet today.
At about 5/1 on the exchanges I’ll take the punt that she gets home strongly today.
Over at Wolverhampton the lucky last 8.30 6f Handicap appeals from a pace point of view. Few want the lead here, which could add to the overall bias towards front-runners.
Nevernay is one who doesn’t mind to run from the front or race prominently, at the very least, and has ran his best races if allowed to stride on.
From the #6 draw he shouldn’t have too much trouble to move forward here. This 11-race maiden drops ever so slightly in class and has been given an opportunity by the handicapper as well, having dropped the gelding to 59.
He ran a huge race over 7f at this venue back in December, though doing too much during the mid-section of the race, and didn’t quite get home to finish 3rd, only 1.5l beaten in the end.
A poor showing at Southwell subsequently, was followed by an awkward effort three weeks ago at Southwell. He was seriously keen, and hard to keep in check by an inexperienced female rider. The race was lost in the first two furlongs. but as a consequence he can race officially in 0-60 off 59 now.
If Nevernay can find back the form he showed in December, he’ll be a big chance today off this mark. Adding to the intrigue is the headgear combination of hood and tongue tie.
The yard has had plenty of success with this type of headgear in the past, so if it can help him to settle, and he is up with the pace, he may not be stopping and hard to peg back.
Joanna Mason goes through a dry spell at the moment, but normally as good rides for the yard, so the booking adds more cautious optimism to the chances of this son of No Nay Never. There is some money coming this morning, so at 9’s he’s one I back.
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