Author: shortcall

Cheltenham, UK

As you could probably write a whole book about this venue, I am going to just outline the very practical aspects of a visit to Cheltenham, both for a meeting like the November event and the festival.

Getting there

Birmingham is the most convenient airport, or Bristol if you really had no other option. You can reach Cheltenham Spa station, direct from Birmingham airport usually with just one change of train. Cheltenham Spa station is a little distance from the town itself, and is definitely a cab ride if you are going straight to the course. However on the big days, the station is served by special race day buses.

Accommodation

If you are planning to go to the festival in any given year, you would need to be thinking about the next year’s accommodation no sooner than the current festival has finished, or even before that. Such is the demand, perennial racegoers just book year on year, hence the accommodation that is left is hyper price inflated, especially for Cheltenham town itself.

Other location options can include: Gloucester, Tewkesbury, the Cotswolds – covers a broad area of villages and small towns, Cirencester. And then the really outlying areas would be places like Bristol, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Oxford, which people/companies still tout as suitable places to be based from. They’re really not, unless you’re part of a tour group which has a bus of you going to the track each day.

For the November meeting, accommodation is still at a premium, but more readily available and in the preferred locations of Cheltenham itself, Gloucester etc.

Enclosures

There are 3 enclosures at Cheltenham: Club, Tattersalls and the Best Mate enclosure (locally known as the cabbage patch…).

Club and Tattersalls give you access to the parade ring, the Best Mate enclosure is opposite the stands. In 2020, Club badges were about £85 for the festival each day, bought in advance or £100 on the day and slightly more for Gold Cup day. For the November meeting they are in and around £30-35 per day for Club.

View of the parade ring with Cleeve Hill in the background

Facilities

Ample facilities across all enclosures. Centaur is the flagship bar in Tattersalls. The Guinness Village is available to Club badge holders, but not for the faint-hearted and only really appeals, if you want to listen to Irish music, drink all day and not see a horse in the flesh.

Guinness village

Do be prepared to queue at all times – to place a bet, buy food and drink, unless it’s early in the day.

Do be prepared to stand for most of the day, unless you get there early and command a table for the day, (if you’re with a group) – or of course you are fortunate to enjoy hospitality.

Weighing room in the background (Magners sponsored building)

Do be prepared to pay top dollar for any sort of drink, hot or cold. The quality of food offered has improved over the years, but it is still artificially expensive.

Availability of toilets has vastly improved down the years and in 2020, I did not have to wait on any occasion.

Politilogue, arriving back after winning the Champion Chase – 2020, the relatively new Princess Royal stand in background
Rear of the Princess Royal stand, the bridge to the left is a good spot to watch race if you don’t like the crowds of the stand

Shopping

Both at the festival and at the November meeting there is a very good shopping village, but it’s not selling your arts and crafts type goods, it’s high-end clothing, jewellery. art and other luxury items, although do pick up a pack or two of Injured Jockey Christmas cards at the November meeting!

What, will no doubt become a permanent feature for all racecourses and venues from now on

At the end of the day

During the festival there are buses running on the loop back into Cheltenham town centre and onwards to the train station. There is a taxi rank, but of course it is over subscribed.

You can easily walk back into Cheltenham town centre in about 15-20 minutes and it’s all downhill on the way back!

Apres racing

I’m a bit long in the tooth now for the general night scene that Cheltenham has to offer, but am reliably informed that the legendary ’21’ Club (Regent Street), is still highly popular with racegoers and jockeys alike.

Cheltenham has plenty of bars and restaurants. Important to note that the town is divided into 2 halves – the main town centre, where the aforementioned ’21’Club is and then an area which is called Montpellier, which starts just North of the equally legendary Queens Hotel. The Queens Hotel used to very much THE meeting point, but I believe it has lost some of it’s gloss down the years.

Montpellier’s most consistently popular haunt is the Montpellier Wine Bar. There are a good few bars and restaurants up here and it is slightly less raucous than the main town.

A slightly less well-known area, is the Bath Road/Suffolk Parade area. Not a lot of people would head there, but there are a few bars, quite a few Indian/Asian restaurants, as well as high-class establishments such Le Champignon Sauvage. Morans on the Bath Road is good reliable, affordable option and we just walked in without a booking after racing. Another good spot in this area is the Daffodil – a restaurant in a former Art Deco style cinema.

Live music

You won’t have to go out of your way to find it!!!

Summary

If going to the festival, you need to be in the fullest of health as it’s a gruelling time, but I cannot adequately articulate how truly wonderful the whole experience is. The old cliche ‘there’s nothing like it’ often attributed when people talk about the festival is absolutely true. The anticipation and excitement are on a totally different richter scale.

The November meeting – the Saturday can be a very messy day, the Friday and Sunday are good days to go, to get a better appreciation of what Cheltenham racecourse and indeed Cheltenham has to offer.

ENJOY AND ENJOY!!!

York, UK

As well as being a fabulous City to visit, York racecourse really delivers.

Logistics

Coming from Ireland, we flew into Leeds Bradford with Ryanair. It’s a compact airport and the Tiger bus from the airport, connects you to Leeds, from which point you take a train to York itself. The walk to York centre takes about 15 minutes at a steady strolling pace and is quite scenic over the river.

Accommodation

We stayed at a fairly priced old hostelry – Guy Fawkes, which is opposite the York Minster (Cathedral). Well-appointed rooms, with a good breakfast.

More upmarket choices are The Grand (nearer to the railway station) and Grays Court nearer to the centre and York Minster.

Dining

Everything – from chains like Cote Brasserie, to creative English fayre in Gastro Pubs, as well as a great selection of independent restaurants. We ate at Bennetts, opposite the Minster, which comes highly recommended. There are a lot of good independent restaurants around this area – Petergate, which is slightly away from the true centre of York, with the Shambles and cobbled streets. If you’re fan of ethnic cuisine, there is a great Nepalese restaurant in Gillygate – Taas. Gillygate also has a good selection of bars and restaurants.

Racing – how to get there

There are buses running direct to the racecourse almost opposite the train station. Frequent and plentiful, from about 10.00.

Enclosures

3 main levels: County Stand (the premium option), Grandstand and the budget Clocktower (opposite the stands). See: https://www.yorkracecourse.co.uk for further information.

We experienced the County Stand and it was very spacious, with an intelligent queuing system for drinks, rather than having to fight for attention in a scrum at the bar. It is a bit of a walk to the parade ring and on the big days the parade ring can be 6 deep, so if paddock watching is for you, you would need to position yourself there nearly for the whole day, if you want the pre & post race action.

Excellent selection of food, from local specialities to all the usual fayre.

General vibe

Everyone generally does dress up, regardless of which enclosure they’re in. It has a very feelgood party atmosphere. I didn’t sense any particular rough, or threatening element – the usual drunks, but generally good natured. They do have the drug amnesty bins at the entrance.

Overall punter experience

9/10, can hardly find any flaws with the racecourse operation.

Other observations

If you are expecting a post racing nightlife akin to Cheltenham, it isn’t really like that. A huge amount of the racegoers go home on the train after racing. I’m sure there are a few lively bars that weren’t on our radar, but having got feedback from others, they would concur with this viewpoint.

Chester, UK

Getting there

Coming from Ireland, you can either fly into Liverpool or Manchester. The train to Chester goes directly from Manchester airport with no stops – about an hour or just over depending on the schedule. The train station is a taxi ride away from the true city centre.

Accommodation

We stayed in the Holiday Inn at the racecourse. It’s basic, but an all you can eat hot (& cold) breakfast and a lot of travelling stable staff stay there, so can be good for people watching in the evenings. What is good, is that the bar is only open to residents, so there isn’t a scrum of people in there before or after racing.

The most prestigious joint in town is the Grosvenor Chester, where you will find all the international set and domestic high-net worth types! – We had afternoon tea there and it was a very pleasant, unstuffy atmosphere.

Dining/drinking

A first observation in Chester is that if you go into a bar looking for food during raceweek, you invariably will be told that they don’t serve it that week! Instead, you’re more likely to find a live DJ set at 3pm in the afternoon. If you want to eat, you would be better off at a tearooms, such as Katies Tea Rooms on Watergate.

Chester is blessed with great dining options. We ate at Joseph Benjamin: https://www.josephbenjamin.co.uk/ – in Northgate, Chez Jules: https://chezjules.com/ also in Northgate & the brilliant Chefs Table: https://www.chefstablechester.co.uk/ in Music Hall Passage. All are great options if you like well-cooked, seasonal food. There are of course plenty of faster food type options.

Chester is certainly a party town, too many bars to mention, but a good sports bar is the Music Hall Tap. If you want something more rough and ready – the City Tavern in Frodsham Street is a good bet. If you want something a little less hectic – the Marlborough Arms bar which has good ales and sport too.

Racing

Before we get into the main feature – just a note for travelling ladies who don’t want to bring a hat with them, there are some really good quality 2nd hand shops in Frodsham Street, selling hats that have probably only had one or two wears!

Ok, so the racecourse, we’ll start with the positives, it’s very central, a real city track surrounded by the ancient city walls. Very pretty to look at from a vantage point. Known as the Roodee, racing dates back to 1539, which is also is believed to be the year racing began.

Chester disbanded the regular Tote betting facility and instead has their own pool betting offering – Chester Bet. I cannot comment on the value versus the ring, as I did not hang around long enough to use it.

There are multiple enclosures, see here for more details: https://www.chester-races.com/racing/enclosures We were in the County Long Stand, which cost (in 2019) about £55.

In mitigation, the main day that we went it rained heavily all day, which rendered all punters inside. However, having visited racecourses in France, Ireland and the UK extensively, Chester holds the unique characteristic of being the only racecourse with about 16 chairs – yes I did count them! There is also nowhere to place your drink, racecard etc. so it makes for a rather uncomfortable experience, unless you have the means to spend £300+ on a lounge set-up arrangement they offer. I am sure if the weather had been better, the whole experience would have been slightly more positive, as you could have probably got a seat in the outside champagne type bars, if you arrived early enough. As it was, it made for a sadly very disappointing experience and in Chester racecourse’s defence, they did refund tickets bought for the following day, of which we didn’t wish to endure.

Overall experience

I probably wouldn’t go again, unless I was in hospitality or O&Ts.

Other observations

If you want to just have a good drinking racing break, Chester is the place to be. Has it all – all the ladies from Liverpool and Manchester and the fellas too. Non-stop partying from 10am until whenever you want.

Newmarket, UK

Getting there

London Stansted airport is convenient for those coming in from overseas. You can hire a car and be in the area in around an hour.

The general area

I was terribly excited about visiting the town of Newmarket, anticipating that it would be crammed with stylish boutiques and hat shops…it isn’t!  Having travelled from Dublin, and not wanting to crush one of my hats en-route, I ended up getting one in TK Maxx in Newmarket High Street!

Newmarket town is full of betting shops and bars, which is no bad thing and to be expected.  Look out for the dedication to the late Walter Swinburn on the pavement, in front of Barclays Bank.

The National Horse Racing museum is definitely worth a visit and the café there is very good.  The menu is interesting and there is a lovely area to sit outside in the courtyard, under the watchful gaze of Frankel.

Limited accommodation in Newmarket and you would have to book well in advance and pay top dollar for the privilege.

We stayed in Cambridge – the Holiday Inn, which is off the main A14. Perfectly acceptable, with inclusive hot buffet breakfast, gym, ample parking but sterile.  Eating out in the evening, it’s best to drive (or get a taxi) to The Boot at Histon: https://boothiston.com/.  Or you could eat in Cambridge itself which is about a 15-20 minute drive.  Cambridge is one of those difficult cities to navigate and park in, until you know where you’re heading to.  Lovely shopping centre there – the Grand Arcade, that does have a multi-storey.

The racecourse itself – wow.  The drive from Cambridge, through the tree lined A roads, past all the stud farms, is a pleasure in itself and then you get to the course.

Newmarket races on 2 different courses – the Rowley Mile and the July course, depending on the programme.

It’s run with military precision and there are ample Sherpa guides on hand to direct the newcomers.

There is a true sense of theatre here that you would expect from flat HQ, and it really needs to be experienced first-hand. 

The dress code in the club enclosure seems to be somewhat relaxed, you can expect some punters in Bermuda shorts, as opposed to collar and tie, which I personally found disappointing.  It was also odd that they didn’t sell sparkling water!

Plenty of outside food & drink stations, as well as hat and accessory type stalls, as well as the usual paintings, jewellery etc.

In summary, a must visit for any racing fan.