Britain
premium
Improving customer experience bearing fruit says Chester chief but challenges persist as May festival crowds appear flat
Chester: the crowds for last week's May festival were level or slightly up on the previous year
Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
Crowd numbers appear to have matched recent years at Chester, but chief executive Louise Stewart warned that courses cannot be complacent in the face of a challenging economic climate.
She believes the efforts the track has made in improving the visitor experience helped secure decent attendances at last week's May meeting.
There were a total of 33,849 racegoers at the three-day fixture in 2023 and 33,593 in 2022, both some way shy of the 53,414 who were on course for the last pre-pandemic festival in 2019.
Read the full story
Read award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing, with exclusive news, interviews, columns, investigations, stable tours and subscriber-only emails.
Subscribe to unlock
- Racing Post digital newspaper (worth over £100 per month)
- Award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing
- Expert tips from the likes of Tom Segal and Paul Kealy
- Replays and results analysis from all UK and Irish racecourses
- Form study tools including the Pro Card and Horse Tracker
- Extensive archive of statistics covering horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, pedigree and sales data
Already a subscriber?Log in
David CarrReporter
inBritain
Copy
more inBritain
- 'We just haven't got the novices coming through' - more short-term pain expected for British jump racing after classifications
- Tim Vaughan given six-month suspended ban and £1,000 fine following positive test
- Ballyburn rated fourth-highest novice hurdler since Anglo-Irish jumps classifications began in 1999-2000
- Vadream 'as good as any sprinter in Britain on soft ground', says bullish Charlie Fellowes
- BHA 'hugely disappointed' as levy talks founder following general election announcement
more inBritain
- 'We just haven't got the novices coming through' - more short-term pain expected for British jump racing after classifications
- Tim Vaughan given six-month suspended ban and £1,000 fine following positive test
- Ballyburn rated fourth-highest novice hurdler since Anglo-Irish jumps classifications began in 1999-2000
- Vadream 'as good as any sprinter in Britain on soft ground', says bullish Charlie Fellowes
- BHA 'hugely disappointed' as levy talks founder following general election announcement