So what can we say about Doncaster racecourse? It's a big course, with lots of stand space and, according to my female minder, loads of ladies toilets! I guess this is because it does play host to some big meetings in the racing calendar, the big one being the St Ledger festival, but there is also the Lincoln. These 2 are flat racing events, however, yesterday we were at Doncaster for National Hunt jumps racing. Doncaster is fortunate to be able to host both National Hunt and flat racing, which means there is racing on offer all the year round. This is great for Doncaster's members.
As you can see from our picture above, the facilities at Doncaster are quite modern. The wedge shaped main stand roof, provides cover from the elements, and there are big indoor halls where you can go and warm up - not that it was too cold yesterday. We all got quite excited when we saw a stand
advertising Theakstons Ales, including Old Peculiar. Sadly, when we went to investigate we found it wasn't open, probably Friday's crowds weren't big enough, as it was wasn't a big meeting.
You don't need a big meeting though to have some great racing action. Curly and I took visitors Clanger and Eyore with us, for their first experience of racing. These 2 are great office friends of office bears, Chris and Benny. Clanger and Eyore were enthralled by what they saw and we all got off to a great start by backing the winner, Polestar. Admittedly this win was aided by the fact that the first hurdle took out 3 of the opposition and a 4th horse had been withdrawn before the start after he bolted off course and threw his jockey, resulting in a broken nose (for the jockey). This just goes to show there is always lots of drama during a day's racing.
Clanger and Eyore need to come racing with us more often, as they proved to be very lucky mascots. We had wins in 4 of the 7 races, a hit rate we always aspire to, but is very hard to achieve. Two of our wins were particularly satisfying as they were on rank outsiders, one incredibly at odds of 100/1. We didn't actually get a win on this horse, but a place, which earned us £21 for a £1 stake! We thought the horse looked great, so decided to ignore the form guide and the betting market, neither of which rated the horse at all. And who was right? It was us. It was a great feeling to see those horses thundering past the stands and to watch their progress on the big screen when they disappeared out of sight - the Doncaster track is a big one, and most races involved little more than an approach to the stands and then a lap.
The interesting thing about Fridays meeting was that it was run on good ground. Doncaster went into the history books as the first race course in Britain to run races on good ground this year. The last time good ground was declared on a British racecourse was a few weeks before Christmas and we had got very used to the going being either 'heavy' or 'abandoned'. With the ground being good, recent form went somewhat out of the window, and this may have helped us to get wins at decent odds.
Doncaster racecourse definitely get the paws up from us, although its distance from Norfolk means it will probably be another year before we return.
Lots of love, Patrick, Curly and the racing team xxx
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