Courses are risking pricing punters out

ATTENDANCES at British racecourses are almost a third lower than pre-Covid levels. The average crowds in May was 2,951 and is well down on the 4,179 for the same month in

2019.

According to the industry newspaper, The Racing Post, there has never been a recorded May average attendance below 3,000. Racing is not the only sport experiencing difficulty in getting customers back through the gates at a time where more and more people are understandably tightening their belts as the cost of living soars.

Crowds at Wimbledon has suffered notably this year but the decline in racing seems the steepest. Even interest in the music nights after meetings have halted and the sport still has issues in securing cast-ironed sponsors that aren’t bookmakers.

Punters don’t have as much expendable income as before and that mirrors a decline in betting turnover too of late. With prize money low and poor field sizes, there is little incentive to go racing. I was at Ayr on Monday and the crowd looked comfortably less than 1,000. The quality of racing was moderate but field sizes were good enough to make some betting appeal.

However, this is where racecourses don’t help themselves. It was still £20 entry with a racecard, £4.70 was the cheapest (flat) pint on offer and it was £14 for a burger, chips and cheese and a coffee that none of which would win any culinary awards.

If Hollie Doyle (pictured) wasn’t there for one ride in the feature race and my desire to see Dornoch Castle in the flesh, who looks a Group class juvenile for Mark and Charlie Johnston, that seems to be up to Glorious Goodwood standard, then I’d not have gone either. And it’s my local track.

I’ll be at Perth today but I’m already wincing at the £25 entry and the small field sizes.

Love of the sport will only take people so far. If the numbers don’t add up in the pocket, then the game’s up.