Big crowds are back - but it's madness to suggest they're here for the racing
Rejoice! Last weekend saw some excellent attendance figures as Haydock and Newbury both pulled in crowds of around 16,000 for their big Saturday cards.
Have we turned a corner after months of falling numbers? Perhaps not. The main attraction at Newbury, unfortunately, wasn't the Super Sprint – and it certainly wasn't the cancelled fillies' novice stakes which reduced the card from seven races to six – but rather the post-racing performance of pop star Craig David.
It was a similar tale at Haydock, where Dickon White said "a huge majority" had come for the racing as well as the subsequent Madness gig and would have enjoyed it. However, it is hard to believe many among Haydock's biggest crowd in a decade were wooed purely by a six-race card featuring 32 runners.
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