Market Rasen and Huntingdon lead way as spectators embrace Boxing Day action

British racing received some welcome respite on Monday from its challenges of attracting spectators, with Huntingdon recording its highest Boxing Day attendance for 14 years.

Huntingdon drew a crowd of 6,390 – its biggest for the day since 2008 when 7,103 people were present – for its final Boxing Day meeting after the Jockey Club announced in the summer it would be moving the meeting to Aintree for 2023.

There was also a crowd of 7,498 at Market Rasen to witness the Lincolnshire Grand National, the largest for the fixture since 2017 and an increase of 52 per cent on last year’s figure of 4,930.

The upsurge in interest for the fixtures at those two tracks was matched by encouraging figures from Wincanton and Wetherby, where crowds were at their highest levels since 2016, with 9,135 people at Wincanton and 10,200 at Wetherby.

Kempton also recorded a small increase in spectator levels for the King George VI Chase meeting, with a crowd of 12,760 up from last year’s 11,578. However, the number represents a sharp drop from the 2019 attendance of 17,218 and represents the second-lowest crowd for the day this century behind 2021.

Tuesday’s attendance at the course was 8,136 compared to 6,448 in 2021, while 9,126 people came through the gates in 2019.

Nevin Truesdale, chief executive of the Jockey Club, said: “It was fantastic to see so many people enjoy the great racing during the festive period. It is a real team effort to put on such brilliant sport across the country from the participants, stable staff and owners to our own teams, sponsors and partners at ITV and across the media.

“We were treated to some superb performances on the track and I would like to pass on my thanks to everyone who worked so hard right over Christmas to show British racing at its best.”

Credit: David Carr

Wetherby chief executive Jonjo Sanderson felt his course benefited from good weather and Sedgefield not racing due to issues with the track, and said: “It was the highest [attendance] since 2016. The fact that the meeting at Sedgefield had been moved to Newcastle may have helped a bit, as did the forecast for a nice sunny day.

“We did a lot of targeted Facebook advertising on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and there were a lot of last-minute bookings from people who wouldn’t necessarily usually come.”

The positive figures recorded on Monday were in contrast to the trend on British racecourses in 2022, during which spectator levels have dropped off sharply as the sport grapples with a number of challenges afflicting its long-term health, including small fields and the drain of equine talent abroad.

Attendances for November were down 12.7 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, while there was a drop of 14.7 per cent from January 1 to October 31 compared to 2019.

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