Dry Weather Boosts Racing Crowds

01 Oct 2014 | tshego

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Warm and dry weather in the UK during September has helped to boost attendances by nearly 10% at the UK’s leading racecourse group compared to the same period in 2013.

With the Met Office predicting this year’s September to be one of the driest on record and the warmest in a century, total attendances at Jockey Club Racecourses topped 88,714 compared to 81,537 in 2013 from the same number of fixtures (27).

Overall, average crowds at Jockey Club Racecourses topped 3,286 during September 2014 compared with 3,020 during the same period the previous year, matching the 8.8% growth in overall attendance for the month.

Highlights during September, with nine of The Jockey Club’s courses in action, included Newmarket Racecourses attracting 6,241 more racegoers than the 25,072 in 2013 at the Rowley Mile and Haydock Park staging a popular three-day Betfred Sprint Cup meeting that welcomed 2,329 more racegoers compared to last year, up from 15,645 in 2013.

According to the Jockey Club, attendances increased despite Haydock Park’s fixture on Saturday 27th September competing with the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool football clubs, Kempton Park staging one less popular Saturday fixture than in 2013 and competition from sports fans watching Europe’s third successive Ryder Cup victory over the last weekend of the month.

Paul Fisher, group managing director of Jockey Club Racecourses, said: ‘We’ve spent more than £150m on our facilities in the last decade to offer the best possible experience all-year-round, you can’t escape the fact that racing is an outdoor sport and weather conditions are the number one variable to crowds. In fact, this September has been one of the best months for attendances we’ve had for seven years, when you look at like-for-like fixtures.’

‘Our marketing and sales teams have been delivering some excellent initiatives as part of this and health returning to the economy is particularly helpful for hospitality sales, although there is still a bit of a North/South difference on that score. The one thing we can guarantee in all weathers is that every penny we make we will put back into British racing, so good crowds is good news for our sport as a whole.’