Pop acts have been striking a lower note at racecourse box office in 2019

Racing was warned on Sunday that booking music acts was not guaranteed to get the turnstiles clicking as it has in the past.

York, which has been one of the pioneers in combining pop acts with racedays, reported that it had been a "hard summer" for tracks selling music nights, with a danger of over-supply as courses compete with each other and with non-racing venues in a crowded marketplace.

Reflecting on its 2019 season, chief executive William Derby revealed crowds were up on nine of its 18 days' racing but down on the three occasions it staged music.

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"We had Busted, James Arthur and Tears For Fears and they all gave very good performances, but we were about 25,000 racegoers down across those three days compared with last year," he said.

"We've been two per cent up outside our three music days, nine of the other days showed an increase on 2018. The music was affected by the awful weather at the end of July and the artists that we had.

"It has been hard this summer for all racecourses. There are a lot of people offering music, not just racecourses, so there are a lot of venues and there haven't been that many artists performing. So there has been a certain amount of over-supply."

Paloma Faith and Olly Murs have both sold out at York in the past, and Derby believes that music acts can still work for racecourses provided they are chosen wisely.

"It goes in ebbs and flows and we're still committed to music days as long as we get the right artists at the right price and on sale at the right time," he said.

"We are looking for someone who appeals to a wide cross-section of generations, Radio 2 artists rather than Capital – who'd probably be too expensive – or Radio 6 Music."

Derby also countered criticisms that those attracted by music days were not engaged by the racing, with their exposure to the sport doing no long-term benefit.

He said: "We are doing music very deliberately to attract a different customer base to York. We invest a lot of time and money when they are here in explaining what's going on in the racing and making sure they can't just turn up for the concert.

"Our Tote figures are very strong on those days, so the myth that people are turning up and not engaging with the racing is not borne out by the experience.

"We also do it to generate a return to invest in meetings like the Dante. We wouldn't be able to stage the quality of the racing programme we have if we didn't have music to generate the funds."

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