Ripon Races
Ripon Racecourse is nicknamed "Yorkshire's Garden Racecourse" and on a warm summer's day, it is one of the most enjoyable race meetings to go and race at. Racing has been going on in Ripon for over three hundred years, and Ripon is supposed to have run the first race for women jockeys in 1723. The present racecourse has been in existence for over one hundred years.
As well as several normal weekday and weekend meetings, Ripon also hosts a number of evening meetings usually held on either a Monday or a Wednesday. This year for the first time, there was a Friday evening meeting held on the 9th May. Fortunately, it was a lovely warm evening (sometimes May can be a bit cold in North Yorkshire) and we were able to have a very enjoyable and profitable evening. There were six races staged at half hour intervals and the first one began at 5.55 pm.
The Ripon Racecourse owners are slowly improving the facilities for guests at Ripon, and this year it was a pleasant surprise to see that the Wakeman Bar had had a long overdue makeover. The paddock at Ripon Races is particularly picturesque and the surrounding trees help make it so. The grounds are alway well-maintained and there are litter pickers on hand to make sure it is kept that way.
There is usually a band playing in the band stand, but on this day for some reason it was empty. The hog roast and cheeseburgers were up to their usual standard but the best thing about the evening was the list of tips given to us by a friend. As the evening progressed, about seven of the nine horses tipped either won or got a place and the woman at the Tote was sick of seeing us collect our winnings by the end of the evening.
All in all it was a thoroughly entertaining night, and if you have not experienced the races at Ripon, then I recommend you try it one day. There are three remaining evening meetings planned this year on Wednesday 4th June, Wednesday 18th June and Monday 7th July.
This entry was posted on Saturday May 10th, 2008 at 5:37 AM and is filed under Things to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
Leave a Reply
Where Can I Go Exploring the UK and Abroad