PUNTERS reacted furiously this week after a family were forced to throw their food in the bin before being allowed entry to Cheltenham racecourse.
A racing fan from the West Midlands went to the home of jumps racing with his wife and 10-year-old child last Saturday.
Some fans found the Showcase Meeting at Cheltenham incredibly expensive
The family of three can “barely afford” a day out at the races as it is, so they tried to take in some snacks to keep them going through the day.
But heavy-handed security searched his wife’s bag and would not let them through the turnstiles unless they chucked the food away.
The family paid more than £70 for tickets, and food and drink at Cheltenham racecourse isn’t cheap.
A pork bap is reportedly £11, while a pint of Guinness will set you back £7.50 – and is served in a flimsy paper cup.
Fans described it as a “disgrace” and “shameful” on social media, while the racegoer and his family said they would not return to the track for the upcoming November Meeting – and you can understand why.
It must have been an embarrassing and uncomfortable experience.
In this day and age, where food prices are rocketing and people are under financial pressure from every direction, how can you justify forcing people to waste perfectly good food?
The racecourse does allow punters to take food with them into the Best Mate enclosure, which is opposite the main grandstand enclosure.
But you are essentially telling racegoers that if they want to bring in a sandwich, rather than shell out for an overpriced burger, they have to sacrifice their preferred race day experience.
You can have your cheese and pickle sarnie, but you won’t be able to see the horses up close and you won’t have access to all the sights and sounds and experiences that everyone else has.
A Cheltenham spokesperson put it to me: “Do Wembley, Twickenham, Anfield etc allow fans to take in food?”
The answer is no, but the two experiences are entirely different.
You spend two hours at a football or rugby match, watching full-on, non-stop action with a 15 minute break at half-time.
When you go racing, you can spend four or five hours on course with around 30 minutes total ‘action’ when the races are taking place. There is a hell of a lot more time to kill.
And besides, with attendances on the slide, racing should be making a conscious effort to differentiate itself from other top sporting events.
It should be an affordable and fun experience for everyone. If you continue to bump prices up and make life difficult for fans, you are going to turn them off.
This is not just a Cheltenham problem – bar a handful of smaller racecourses you are not allowed to take your own food and drink in with you.
The sport must listen to its fans, who are finding themselves increasingly being priced out of going racing. We can’t afford to be so out of touch.
