My Punchestown trip underlines how badly British racegoers have it

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I promise to start writing about horses and betting soon, but outside of playing golf, going racing is my favourite pastime and a fabulous trip to Punchestown last week made me want to get something off my chest.

There have been plenty of negative comments recently about the fall in attendance rates at the racecourse, and my short response to that would be: why is anyone surprised?

We've just been through/are still in a pandemic, the cost of living is going through the roof and is only going to get worse, and the prices at the racecourse have skyrocketed too.

There is only so much money to go around, and every time a casual racegoer heads to the track and finds out how much a day at the races is going to cost them they are going to think hard about making another visit.

Food prices on course have always been at the limit of acceptability and drink prices have arguably gone beyond that. It was £7 for a pint of Guinness at the Cheltenham Festival and £6.80 on bet365 Gold Cup day at Sandown, where one day earlier in the year I paid £42 for a bog-standard bottle of Sauvignon.

Why?

My Twitter timeline during the Cheltenham Festival was full of people moaning about the costs and declaring their intention to not to return and, as someone who goes racing whenever I can at the weekends, I have heard many people talk of their displeasure at the pricing structure.

The Punchestown festival last week was 'a breath of fresh air' according to Paul KealyCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

It surely doesn't have to be this way, and certainly not judging by my experience at Punchestown.

If you haven't been to the Punchestown festival, I suggest you put it on your bucket list and get there when you can. It's true there are some average races and that some of the Grade 1s feature small fields with short-priced favourites, but is that much different from Cheltenham these days?

Here's what you get that is different from the major festivals in Britain based on my experience from Tuesday to Thursday last week:

1) Entry at an affordable price – there was a cheaper option, but 40 euros got you entry to the Reserved Enclosure, which gives you plenty of places to go.

2) Space to breathe – unlike the other major festivals it doesn't get completely rammed. There was plenty of space to move around and no ridiculous queues either for the bars or bathrooms.

3) A fun, relaxed atmosphere – the Irish love their racing, particularly the jumps, and the British who go there do too. The Brits who want to go racing just to get smashed stay at home.

4) Drinks at a reasonable price – it was just six euros for a Guinness last week, which is little more than a fiver at the current exchange rate. If Punchestown can do it, why can't courses in Britain be reasonable too? It's greed, pure and simple. And in Ireland they accept cash, too – the currency of the racecourse.

5) Bar staff who know what they're doing – the pint you get when you first go to the bar will not be the first pint a student has ever poured in their life. One day at Sandown not so long ago, I ordered a Guinness only for the young girl to give me a pint glass two-thirds full. When I asked her to top it up, she said: "Oh what, you want more?" You couldn't make it up (and I promise I haven't), but while we all know finding hospitality staff is hard, training them, even briefly, before they start shouldn't be.

Punchestown last week was a breath of fresh air, and when I left I was in no doubt that I would do whatever I could to go back again next year. I wonder how many people experience that sort of feeling on a British racecourse these days?

They say the economy will get worse before it gets better. Racecourse attendances will get worse too, but if the tracks don't start giving punters an experience to remember for the right reasons, they will not bounce back.

In this week's Weekender

There are Derby and Oaks trials at Lingfield on Saturday, but it will be Ascot for me and the Victoria Cup, for which I have a couple of fancies at double-figure odds, and you can read my case for them here. Hopefully they will perform a good deal better than the horses I backed at Newmarket at the weekend.

Pricewise guru Tom Segal isn't convinced about the form of the two Newmarket Classics, as he explains here.

Ed Walker runs the rule over his runners this week as well as giving updates on the likes of weekend winner Dreamloper and potential star sprinter Great Ambassador.

Read these next:

Sandown will review dress code after snub to racegoers with white trainers

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