Pontefract Racecourse popularity is surging according to racing experts
A racing attendance report has named Pontefract Racecourse among the UK courses that have grown in popularity the most over the past three years.
The racing experts at OLBG revealed the UK racecourses with the biggest attendance over the past decade, those with the highest attendance per event, the racecourses increasing and decreasing in popularity the most, the racecourses with the highest number of annual searches and whether racegoers prefer flat or jump racing.
Musselburgh came out on top as the track with the biggest increase in popularity over the past three years with Kempton Park in second and Pontefract coming in at a highly respectable seventh.
When analysing the number of searches carried out for racecourses, between September 2021 and August 2024, the number of people searching for Pontefract increased by 1,909.09%
Ascot has the highest total and average attendance, with Cheltenham in second, while Pontefract fares well as one of the smaller tracks, in 13th overall for biggest attendances per event (3,907) – ahead of the likes of Sandown Park and Chepstow.
Ponte stands in 18th out of the 57 tracks in Britain when it comes to attendance change since 2014 – down 7.73%, but faring much better than Doncaster, Aintree and Ascot, with only 10 courses reporting increases in the 10-year period.
Steve Madgwick, editor-in-chief at OLBG, said: “The racing industry has faced many battles in the past decade to get attendees through the gates in the UK and like many other sports, the Covid-19 Pandemic provided even more difficult circumstances to contend with in 2020 and 2021.
”The team at OLBG are proud to be involved in the UK racing trade and as part of our latest racing attendance report, we wanted to compare and contrast attendance figures over the past 10 years per racecourse, seasonally and per race type.
"The numbers of attendees at major UK racecourses always see a major boost due to headline festival events, but it is paramount we highlight some of the courses that people are becoming more aware of and interested in visiting. Musselburgh is one of those and over the past three years, search numbers for the racecourse have increased by more than 3,000%!”
The findings of the report in detail can be found at https://www.olbg.com/blogs/horse-racing-attendance-report