A day out at the races is always a fun occasion and provides the opportunity to get dressed up while also watching a high-quality sporting event.
Naturally, the atmosphere and experience of being at a racetrack will differ depending on the occasion and size of the event, and some races just have to be watched live rather than on your television screens.
Grand National has mass appeal
The one race, above all others, to attend in the UK, whether you live there or are a visitor, is the Grand National at Aintree. While the UK does not officially have a ‘race that stops the nation’ in the same way as the Melbourne Cup in Australia, the Grand National is the one race each year when people will bet on horses, even if they have no real interest in the sport.
While the race does attract a huge TV audience, it is one that should be experienced at the track itself. A sense of anticipation builds through the day as the other races take place and the longer-than-usual gap between the preceding race and the Grand National itself only heightens the excitement levels.
Changes are being made to the pre-race parade so that there is a little less pressure on the horses, but they will still be cantered past the crowd to the famous Chair fence before heading down to the start. Once the tape goes up to start the race, the thunderous roar that sends the horses on their way is a spine-tingling moment.
The nerve-jangling feeling of wondering how your horse is doing once it goes out of view also fuels the experience of being there before raucous cheers accompany the horses on the run to the finish line.
In terms of coming closest to matching the Grand National atmosphere, the Cheltenham Festival in March is one to attend. The cheer from the crowd ahead of the first race on the opening day of the four-day meeting, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, is a deafening cry, but the race of the whole week to watch live is the Gold Cup on the final day.
Blue riband event of National Hunt racing
The Cheltenham Gold Cup is the blue riband event in National Hunt racing and features the best chasers from Britain and Ireland. Watching the runners come down the Cheltenham hill for the final time before speeding around the bend into the home straight is a genuine buzz, and there have been plenty of occasions when hats have been thrown into the air as horses cross the line.
On the Flat, the one race to watch live has to be the Epsom Derby. Royal Ascot has a grander sense of pageantry but for combining tradition, atmosphere, and equine quality, the Derby is the one to be at in early June.
Ultimately, watching a sporting event live rather than on TV is always a memorable experience, but being there for some of horse racing’s premier races takes some beating.