Newton Abbot drops main admission price by £4 due to cost of living crisis

Newton Abbot has dropped its admission price for its main enclosure by £4 this year in response to the cost of living crisis.

The Devon track stages its first meeting of 2023 on Saturday and sales have been “very good” according to managing director Pat Masterson, with the advance price for the paddock enclosure reduced to £16 and on-the-day price to £18. Admission to the course enclosure remains £12.

Newton Abbot’s average attendance of 2,070 last year was down by 524 compared to the pre-Covid levels in 2019.

Masterson said: “The economy is so rubbish and people are struggling to go racing, or to any other sporting event, or even buying food given how the prices are going up.

“When we were doing the budgets, it was pretty obvious that we were going to do something because it’s no good having an empty racecourse if people can’t afford to attend. We dropped the prices accordingly and the rest of the board were in total agreement with the decision.

“We feel £16 to come to our best enclosure is good value and sales have been very good for our first meeting, so hopefully that continues through the season.”

A recruitment programme to employ, and fully train, between 40 and 50 bar staff has been launched in the track’s off-season, with officials hoping to minimise staff absentees and the waiting time to be served for racegoers.

“Last year was a disaster on this front,” said Masterson. “At every meeting we had anything from six to 18 people just not turning up an hour and a half before racing, therefore it gave me headaches about closing bars or catering outlets.

“We had issues and people just did not want to work. I’m sure each racecourse has experienced similar things and we’ve done something that we hope will prove beneficial.”

Pat Masterson: managing director at Newton Abbot

Masterson said there has been an increase in prize-money across the track’s 18 fixtures although he shared grievances over the restrictions of the race programme.

“Our prize-money has increased and it's what we expect it to be but it can be frustrating,” said Masterson. “We have to stage six races rather than seven through the height of the summer, and we’re trying to put good prize-money on to get horses and owners here, but sometimes we’re restricted by the races we can stage and their maximum values.

“I’ve done the race programme about four times to add more money into it but it’s not easy.”

The course was waterlogged over the weekend after 50mm of rain last week but there are no concerns for Saturday’s fixture with a dry forecast in the lead up. The track's final meeting of the year is on October 21.

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