The Racecourse Prices Index 2025

The Racecourse Prices Index is a report from Britain and Ireland’s racetracks on the cost of going racing.

This publication is designed to help punters determine whether they are getting value for money, and will hopefully encourage some racegoers to attend meetings they may not have done previously.

In this report, we have ranked all UK Flat racecourses in terms of their value for money, rating respective costs of tickets, pints, burgers and bottles of water, while also taking into account the track’s TripAdvisor rating, walking distance from the nearest train station and, where applicable, the number of plays the track’s top performing artist has received on Spotify. 

Racecourse	Score
Newbury	80.7
Redcar	80.1
York	79.1
Thirsk	78.4
Ayr	77.7
Pontefract	77.0
Musselburgh	76.9
Wolverhampton	76.3
Beverley	76.1
Brighton	75.1
Southwell	74.1
Chelmsford	74.1
Salisbury	73.6
Ripon	73.5
Ascot	73.3
Epsom	72.9
Carlisle	72.8
Chester	72.7
Newmarket	71.6
Catterick	71.4
Lingfield	71.2
Windsor	70.9
Doncaster	70.8
Kempton Park	70.2
Nottingham	70.1
Sandown	69.7
Hamilton	69.7
Yarmouth	68.3
Haydock	68.2
Leicester	66.8
Bath	65.2
Newcastle	65.0
Goodwood	61.1
Chepstow	59.9
Ffos Las	58.6

Irish racetracks and National Hunt Jumps racing will have their reports published later this year.

Newbury named the best value for money racecourse

Newbury Racecourse has been named as the best value for money track this year, with a score of 80.7 out of 100, while Chepstow Racecourse has emerged as the worst value for money option, with a score of 59.9. 

Premier Flat tracks Ascot, Epsom and Newmarket are all in the top 20 value for money courses, while the popular Sandown and Goodwood tracks are surprisingly among the lowest scoring racecourses. 

The top ten scoring racecourses for value for money are Newbury, Redcar, York, Thirsk, Ayr, Pontefract, Musselburgh, Wolverhampton, Beverley and Brighton as Northern racecourses take up 70% of the top ten scores compared to their Southern counterparts.

Racing Post Racecourse Prices Index 2025 overview

• Most expensive pint: Goodwood (Goodwood Brews) £7.70
• Cheapest pint: Ayr (Tennents) £5
• Most expensive entry ticket: Ascot £30
• Cheapest entry ticket: Ripon (£8)
• Most expensive burger: Newmarket, Nottingham, Sandown, Haydock, Kempton, Epsom, Carlisle (all £12 with chips)
• Cheapest burger: Redcar (£6)
• Best rating on TripAdvisor: Catterick and Ripon (4.6 stars)
• Nearest distance to train station: Southwell (0.04 miles)
• Furthest distance to train station: Ripon (11.7 miles)
• Worst rating on TripAdvisor: Bath (3.5 stars)

How is the Racecourse Prices Index score calculated?

Each racecourse is given a final score out of 100, based on a weighted ranking across a range of key metrics. These include ticket price, food and drink costs, TripAdvisor ratings, proximity to public transport, and entertainment value.

Every metric is scored relative to the other racecourses in the index, with weighting applied to reflect overall customer importance. This creates a fair, data-led comparison that highlights the best overall racecourse experiences across the UK.

The data was compiled directly from the 35 racecourses in the study, using a combination of data scraping and direct contact with racecourse stakeholders.

For the ticket price data, the price was taken of the cheapest available adult ticket for a non-Premier Raceday at each track. 

Beverage prices were taken from official racecourse bars, while food prices were collated from food concession outlets.

The distance from the nearest train station to the racecourse was calculated via Google Maps and TripAdvisor ratings were taken directly from site. 

Spotify downloads and streaming figures are reflected of acts that are available on the platform, data was not available for tribute acts and similar. 

All data was compiled between March 1 and May 15 2025 and prices were correct at the time of publication.