A day at the races

I have never been to horse racing before, it has never been something I felt compelled to partake in – well watch, those poor horses wouldn't be running anywhere with me on their backs.

So when we were invited by a friend to go to GloriousGoodwood to celebrate his birthday I thought, well why not? 

I popped on-line to check the dress code, where the racecourse was and how to get there. Hubski and I ended up getting a last minute deal the The Ship Hotel which is such a lovely boutique hotel.

It took us a couple of hours to get to Chichester, where the hotel is, and we then got a cab to the racecourse, which took around 15 minutes. Upon arriving it was swarming with people, dressed in their best, fascinators and Panama hat galore! Although I was disappointed to see that a fair few people slipped through the dress code net, stronger policing would be nice to keep the standard high. 

The Hubski and I enjoying a G&T on the roof terrace

We grabbed a G&T in the Gordon’s bar and mingle around to get our bearings. Knowing absolutely nothing about horse racing or betting I had various questions for my friend who was ‘in the know’ about it all and got myself up to speed, well a little anyway!

The atmosphere is quite interesting because everyone gets really hyped up for each race (there were 7 in total) but the races are say 30 minutes apart so in between things relax a little, the bars get busy and then everyone gets back to their viewing spot to watch their horse come in.

The view from the grandstand

Are there any tricks to betting? Probably, but I don’t know them. For me it was a case of picking a horse with a name that I could manipulate to be relevant to me or one that had pink in the jersey. This is how I stumbled upon Pal of the cat – a fair maiden (which means it has never won a race, not that it’s a female horse…). Off I popped to put a tenner on the last race. Would you believe it, Pal of the cat won its first race and I won £280 on my first bet! Hoorah, winning makes the day even more fantastic.

When the buzz died down we went back to Chichester on a private bus that is put on for the race goers. Being on top of a double decker bus on country lanes after a day of drinking G&T’s and Pimm’s is a bit interesting….

We got back to the hotel exhausted, the excitement really takes it out of you but we did still manage a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant, which has an AA rosette. There were mixed reviews online about the restaurant, mainly picking fault at the service so we were a little sceptical but we needn’t have been. Our food came out promptly, it was delicious (I had tagliatelle with gorgonzola, caramelised onions and kale – light summery and hit the spot with its generous portion size) and the service was polite. The breakfast the next morning was just as good, with me opting for something that wasn’t on the menu and hubski having the eggs Benedict (duck egg, in a fresh cob with Parma ham and béarnaise sauce).

All in all I rather enjoyed myself and will most probably be booking myself a day at Royal Ascot next year! 

Kx