doncaster saturday

Nothing surprises me with arc or jcr Windsor yesterday tatts was £51 to get n a s.it hole like Doncaster,for less than a score you can go to Ascot National hunt on a Friday and enjoy the surroundings of the worlds finest racecourse.

This is absolutely true from yesterday

A new bar has opened at Doncaster called the flying Scotsman it’s a real ale bar at the old stand where the horses return to pre parade ring,they have a good choice of ale I decided to have a wainwright blonde which I like and at £5.30 I thought was ok for a sporting event on paying it became £5.80 I asked why is that ,the lad explained it’s 50 pence for the glass (plastic ) ok do I get it back if I bring it back,no he says but if you have another in the same class you don’t have to pay the 50p again,

The reason given for this charge is the company who clean the glasses charge for cleaning them.


On another note there is a Barry hill’s section on the wall I was amazed at how successful a trainer he was.

Holy fck !

Had a laugh with the lad in the end when I finished I said I’ll take this glass back with me and bring it back tomorrow he was fine with that and even offered me a clean one.

I was on holidays a few weeks ago in Deauville and went to the two big Sunday meetings. It was 10 euros to get in(8 if you were over 60). You could go anywhere on the course. There was seating for all. Several Group Ones.

It's a total rip off over here.

Agreed Clerkmore, but would you get rid of bookies and just have the tote?

In Italy they have the Tote and oncourse bookies only.

Absolutely Tiger. I'd agree with the Italian model.

The biggest mistake ever made was the licensing of bookmakers off course in the early sixties. The problem is that they can't change it as bookmaking would go underground as punters have got used to betting like that. I remember in Ireland in the seventies the government thought they would get more money into the Exchequer by putting the betting tax up to 20 per cent. What happened was that in every town someone would set up shop in a pub and punters could bet tax free. I remember where I lived that the publican opened a betting shop after the government cottoned on to their error and abolished betting tax.

I'm afraid we are lumbered with the present system.

jimnast great story. I guess we should bring our own jug (plastic).
As for the late Barry Hills he was a great trainer. HE set up from a Lincoln gamble. You gotta read 'Frankincense' his biography.
Royal Applause was my favourite Hills horse[:. I was in Newmarket for his Middle Park win, fancied his chances big-time and loved him forever after that.

its a s hole alright and charging york prices what a joke, couldent sit down last time, 70 each in ffs what a joke and its f rough

Well I decided to call back in the royal Scotsman yesterday and noticed straight away the wainwright was now displayed at £5.80 which I thought was a much more sensible idea than having staff explaining to customers about the glass charge,the young lad poured my pint and passed it over to me,that will be £6.30 sir.

Jay

The story of frankincense is up on the wall despite the extra charge I really hope the racecourse give the bar a chance throughout the national hunt season ,there use to be one at Newbury where many members of this forum would meet for a couple of pints before racing but in the end it went ,from what I’ve seen the first two days the pests don’t use it.

One more story about the cost at Doncaster the silver ring is £21 to get in £26 today yet on Thursday both the bar and betting office were closed due to both been used for storage it seems the meeting crept up on them without them without knowing.

Yesterday on ITV racing , one of the pundits said that tickets were still available. At those prices I'm not surprised. The family enclosure is £31

Admission - Family Final Release
Our family enclosure is located a furlong from the winning post, and has an alcohol-free area to ensure a relaxed environment. Access to course bookmakers and great festival food & drink offers. This is also family entertainment throughout the day to engage the little ones.

£62 for a couple -might as well watch it at home for free and get a better view.

Well great festival food and drink offers there was a gin bar which had a cue of around 40 people when I had a look ,and a stall selling fudge,the children’s entertainment was one ride a small roundabout type thing which I was told was £3 a go,clearly by some distance the worst run racecourse in the country when your think the start the flat finish the flat and stage a classic they really should be looking after both the racegoers and the future of racing much better instead of false advertising and outrageous prices all round.

They’ve been competing with York since time began failing miserably…..imo

Big Chamberlain “the noise is deafening “ ffs you could hear them rustling the crisps ….

Form I’ve spoke to many this week who use to do the ebor st leger week double and all agreed back in the 90s until the new Doncaster course opened in 2007 the whole experience Doncaster was on at least a par with York.

Now it’s like comparing city with united

I’ve made the journey more times than saying ffs jimnast….York by a mile for me…

Of course it is form and no sane person could say any different,but it wasn’t always that way and it the gap shouldn’t be so wide.

Two very up to date comparisons

York as we speak are spending a fortune on improving the old stand by the furlong marker including a new grass area .

Doncaster won’t spend any money on the old stand where that real ale bar is I’ve mentioned,many enjoyed watching the racing from the steps above it,those steps have been closed this week ,

Just a couple of years ago york invested fortunes on the course enclosure including two brand new toilet blocks

Doncaster put a couple of portable loos in their family enclosure and charge over a score a time to go in that enclosure with hardly any facilities even on there big day.

Incidentally haydock is following the Doncaster route as are some other courses.

All racecourse managers and financial people should spend a week at York or Kelso obviously those two are on a different scale but both superbly run .

100% agree

I would throw Hamilton in as well ….

I stopped going to Haydock when it became overpowering of cheap scent and aftershave,howling and screaming…..

Maybe an age thing but I prefer the quiet crowd of teeth and tweed….

Yes Hamilton would be a very pleasant surprise for those who have only seen it on tv Salisbury would be the reverse

Perth,Hamilton,Musselburgh and Kelso I could recommend,Ayr ? Not what it used to be imo…maybe it’s changed

I not what your saying about Ayr but I still love the western meeting so many betting opportunities yes it’s tired but a great fixture and Prestwick is a great place to spend a few nights ,unfortunately can’t go next week I will miss it.

Musselburgh hugely improved since the 90s ,not a lover of Perth the standard of racing doesn’t help.

A new trend I noticed yesterday,it might have been around a bit,but never really noticed it.
Was the new self service beer ATMs.there seemed a lot of them.

I can see there’ll be no bar staff in 5 years and all bar sales will be self service.
No queues,worked really well.this definitely will grow.

Seemed about 15/20 of these,there’ll be 50 next year.

No doubt Cheltenham will cotton on and swamp the place with them.

Yes I saw them comingupthehill thankfully I never saw anyone use them on the first two days and even yesterday they didn’t seem very popular.

Whilst bookmakers are terrified of been caught out for taking bets of underaged which the gambling commission set traps for ,these machines don’t ask for proof of age,

Good point.
But at the cost of a pint on course these days it’s probably out of kids price range ha ha.

Another sneaky thing I ve noticed at haydock and Donny,
A few pitches tickets they give out is vague on the pitches sign.

Fake example
Ticket says bill smith racing
Pitch sign says B S racing.

Difficult to find the pitch you put a bet on with,espically if drunk and not used to the ring,maybe some people just give up,espically if small win.

This might be done accidentally,but I presume ticket must match sign,but it might not be exactly the same wording.

I would think most would be as it says on the pitch ,not sure of the absolute rule but what you say isn’t very good .

Was reading Bangor on Dee had a " punters package " deal the other day, £30 got you paddock entrance, racecard , drink, fish and chips.

Can't knock that imo.

And I can tell you glasgow the fish and chips are very good ,

It’s seems incredible than Bangor on Dee is owned by Chester.

I was in the family enclosure on Saturday. Alcohol free ? It was full of beer swilling foul mouthed groups of young men and skimpily dressed more foul mouthed young ladies . The website forgets to tell you on the booking page that kids go in free so you are duped into paying for them. The children's entertainment was non existent unless you count one small trailer carousel type ride which  you had to pay for!  The car park was £7 . Pathetic.

Brians

I mentioned that ride earlier,completely false advertising from arc all round ,I have no idea why but arc want to chase people away from racing.

Morning lads - thought i would put in an appearance whilst im still a bit lucid.

Cud go on and on about racecourses and their pricing structures which are getting worse by the day/weeks/mths etc but heres my latest dealings with Carlisle which ive booked up for me and Tom (the dealer) for October 19th at £150a pop each .

We last attended this meeting just as covid was beginning to bite - same day was the weight cloth issue in the bumper involving the jolly/Brian Hughes runner and we attended that gig at about £90 a pop cos there was a special on which had knocked about £25 off the price.

Anyway we rocked up for our food -wasnt a choice by the way or very little- and our first course was a nice bit of soup and posh bread - only problem was that the soup portion was served in one of those turkish type cups they drink tea from - main course i cant even remember what i had so onto dessert which was a tart and ice cream - very nice but way ott price wise.

Anyway we cracked on and then went and saw Wazza in the trading room and that was the best food we had all day cos we managed to blag a cupla free doughnuts from an adjoining room party - Wazza had paid £12 for fish n chips earlier in the day and wasnt impressed with it - anyway i dgress and come back to this current deal .

Its in Swifts restaurant -just check out the itinerary of what you get for ya money though the best being a glass of fizz on arrival -my thinking is that two drinks in the bottle is likely to be half full anyway so i will be sorely tempted to bung the waiter a few quid to leave the rest with us tbh cos for the price we are paying surely they can just chuck in the full bottle.

I also know that i will be likely ordering a side of chips etc etc to bring the meal size upto a growing mans standard cos all this ala carte rubbish wudnt/dusnt feed a tiny mouse - rip off Britain at its best im afraid

and meanwhile in the real world i can still purchase tickets at£3 a pop ew for a 120 mile round trip to Carlisle from the toon

*by train if they ever run

Hello Paul

How’s things

not too clever but ya know im a fighter so nowt changes in my mindset - what will be will be depending how the cards are dealt and as they say up here theres nee point crying over spilt milk so onwards and upwards my friend

Hopefully the decent start to the champions league will have helped,yes onwards and upwards and keep fighting hopefully bump into you in the winter .