The Little Mix debate: do racecourses and music work together?

Music and racing can work

David Baxter, reporter

The scenes of the ITV racing team joining in with the traditional bandstand singalong at Royal Ascot showed people are quite capable of mixing racing and music without descending into the loutish behaviour that blighted Little Mix's Newmarket concert last Friday.

That is not to say Ascot is completely blameless in this respect. Anyone who witnessed the viral video of racegoers fighting or read of the shameful throwing of a pint of beer at Andrea Atzeni aboard Appeared on his way to the start for the Duke of Edinburgh knows that.

Live concerts after racing appeal to a different crowd and can add to the experience of a day at the races. Sadly there will always be a minority who spoil such occasions but this is where tracks need to be more vigilant. At Newmarket, reports of a lack of stewarding and disregard for young children and disabled attendees is the most troubling.

Andrea Atezni: had a pint of beer thrown at him at Royal AscotCredit: Daniel Smith

Music and racing should be able to co-exist in harmony, such meetings broaden the sport's appeal and bring in considerable income, which can be reinvested into the sport. But tracks need to make sure it is the customer experience, and not the bottom line, which is the most important factor in driving these events.

Do young fans really engage with the action?

John Cobb, associate editor

I have no desire to deprive the culture-starved inhabitants of East Anglia with their fix of Little Mix but there is a time and place to stage concerts aimed largely at an audience of teenage girls and I don't believe that is after a drink-fuelled evening at a racecourse.

Undoubtedly music nights are money-spinners for racecourses, but do they really act as an introduction to racing for Little Mix fans? I'll look forward to seeing them on the Rowley Mile for the Cesarewitch.

Do most young fans engage with the action or do they find a good spot in front of the stage before racing starts and stretch out there until the horses are out of the way?

Do music nights deprive racing fans of the chance to enjoy a summer evening on the July course because admission prices are hoiked up and there is a stage in the middle of the sight line?

Should Newmarket stage racing and music events together?Credit: Mark Cranham

Do racecourses have sufficient security staff to ensure the safety of teenagers in a crowd of this huge size with ageing drunken men, also apparently of huge size, making the evening intolerable?

"No other music venue offers such great value!" Newmarket boasts, forgetting it's a racecourse first and putting the art before the horse.

There is nothing wrong with courses staging concerts. They are great venues and often in out of the way places without other arenas that could attract big-name acts. Just hold them on non-racing days.

Newmarket vows no room for loutish antics after music mayhem