Jonjo Sanderson, Chief Executive and Clerk of the Course at Wetherby
We’ve always seen at Christmas that it’s a very diverse crowd. It’s social. It’s families coming together. It’s friends coming together. It’s very much a big feel-good race meeting. We can see from our customer database system that these festive crowds book annually. It’s the only fixture they come to, and trying to convert them to return to other fixtures is tricky, but if people come and have a good experience and leave with a positive mindset, they may well come back at a future meeting.
On various days, we do have different things going on. At Christmas, we know we see more children, so you’ve got to provide some additional entertainment. But fundamentally, the sport will always be the essential focus, certainly at a small independent racecourse. We don’t have the vast resources to be putting on large concerts. At Wetherby, the sport will always be front and centre.
You’ve only got to stand and watch the first race here on Boxing Day; everybody was at the front of the grandstand watching the race, and we had some fantastic finishes on Boxing Day as well. The
noise and the cheers as photo finishes were announced made it very evident that people were here for the racing.
Overall, I think it’s about making sure everyone – staff, third-party contractors, bookmakers – is invested in providing a really good customer experience. Even just coming in and having a professional car-parking operation to ensure that the thousands of cars that we had here got in, parked, and got out successfully, is working for us.
My advice is to make sure that we give the best customer service we can while the customers are with us – hopefully that means they’ll keep coming back.
Lynne MacLennan, owner
I think the analysis that was done pre the big festive meets whetted people’s appetite and contributed to the great turnout over Christmas. Usually, there isn’t enough analysis apart from maybe the three horses at the top, and it turns people off because if you’re going to the races and you think there’s only two horses that can really win a race of ten runners, it’s not much of a race.
It’s also a huge own goal by racing that they only seem to focus on certain owners. Most people can’t relate to those big owners. If you want to engage the wider public, you have to use the stories
that speak to them. Unfortunately, I think the message the racing press are putting out now is that unless you’re willing to throw hundreds of thousands at horses or plan to go to Cheltenham, then
what’s the point?
Equally, the horses that these owners have are almost untouchable. They cost a lot of money so most of them are proven. We don’t buy proven horses; we buy babies because for us, the journey of getting them to the racecourse is every bit as important as what they do when they get there. We started with horses that cost £16,000, but we got the bug. We wanted to do better, so we started to try and achieve better, but it’s taken us ten years.
We’ve had so many ups and downs, like with [Grade 2 Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase winner] Mambonumberfive – if we had kept him in France, it wouldn’t have worked. He would’ve been put over fences at three and been finished by the time he was four. Now he’s running beautifully, and that’s quite a good story to write about, how we thought about the horse. There are so many very human and equine stories they don’t pick up on.
That’s where I dislike the focus on racing being a full-day entertainment experience; it should be about the horses and the sport. We need to be clear about the message the sport is putting out. If horseracing is treated as purely entertainment, then I think that’s the wrong approach, given the risks involved for both horses and jockeys. To me, that’s not something I’m comfortable with.
Once we were at a track when they had a Hawaiian night on. People were extremely drunk and high on the balconies, screaming and shouting, and there were young horses in the parade ring. Two
or three of the horses got upset and broke through the rail – it could’ve been quite nasty.
For me, sideshows just have no place in racing. I’m not in the game to entertain people; I’m in the game to have the best horse that I can. I want people coming to see good horses win good races.
For us, it’s always been about the sport.
Beyond the entertainment side, we need to understand why the people turned out at Christmas in the way they did. I don’t know what that magic ingredient was, but the only way you’re going to get people back is by reminding them how exciting horseracing really is.
Fergal O’Brien, trainer
Jump-wise over Christmas, I thought it was fantastic. I went to some of the smaller tracks and they were all very busy, with a great atmosphere. I was very lucky to be at Cheltenham as well on New Year’s Day, which was a record crowd. I’m always surprised by New Year’s Day at Cheltenham – you’d think people would be nursing a hangover! – but it gets everyone out. It’s a time when people can get together. It’s a great sport, and young and old can take part.
Tracks are getting people through the doors, especially students. You go to Exeter or Doncaster and on some days, there’ll be 5,000 there, which I think is a fantastic initiative. They’re picked up on a bus for 20 quid, the racecourse puts music on for them, and they just have a great time. It’s not what the purists really like, but if you’re getting 5,000 students there and only half of them go back and develop an interest in the sport, it’s still a fantastic way of bringing people into racing.
Making it good value for money gets families and young people through the gates, and that’s something we need to keep doing. And when they’re there, it doesn’t need to be £8 for a pint or £10 for a burger. It needs to be good value, not just for the tickets but once people are on course too.
We’ve also got to be more positive about our sport and not so negative. We’ve got a great product and shouldn’t be so apologetic for it. We should be promoting our sport rather than always having to defend it. Of course, you can always do things better, but I think there are a lot of very good things happening within racing. We need to be proud of what we’ve got.
Victoria Stoughton, racegoer
There was a real buzz at the races over the festive period, and many racecourses are doing an excellent job of making it a fun day out. They’re holding a variety of activities throughout the day, from music and family-friendly events to other attractions.
Big headline acts in the evenings give people a reason to stay all day – enjoy the racing, soak up the atmosphere, and then watch the music afterwards. For many visitors who aren’t regular racegoers, the sport itself may initially take a back seat, but simply getting them through the gates can spark an interest in following racing.
From my perspective, social media plays a massive role in getting people to engage with the sport, but there needs to be a conscious effort to cater to different audiences. From what I’ve seen online, many courses and companies are doing really well at keeping racing interesting for the wider public, but some of what they put out is still quite traditional. Even with behind-the-scenes content, it can be fairly formal, but by making it more relaxed, the sport becomes more approachable for someone who goes to the races once a year but would like to get more involved.
It’s clear that racing is already doing a lot that works, but attracting casual racegoers more regularly depends on understanding what truly resonates with them. The fantastic crowds over the festive period demonstrate how much people can be drawn in, showing there is real momentum for the sport to build on. ”
