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jennywales

THROUGH THE BINS: FFOS LAS – A STORY STILL UNFOLDING

I went to Ffos Las on Friday 28 August – a jumps meeting with a very good £50,000 chase and several more decent races. The course itself lived up to its new reputation as fair and well-designed, the racing surface was good (although it did cut up towards the end of the day as a result of extremely heavy rain, and it will be interesting to see whether they can get it back in such good condition by the time of the next meeting, considering the sub-surface).

I had a rotten betting day, but was delighted to see Backstage win the big chase, after several underperforming runs. I hovered between Backstage and Boychuk for that and, guess what, picked Boychuk!

However, in other respects, Ffos Las needs to settle down. They have had two “big” jumps meetings, the first one in June and now this one – I missed the first Flat meeting, but did go to an Arab race meeting last month, which was hardly advertised but very pleasant. The publicity for both jumps meetings put very heavy emphasis on “come racing and have a good time”, and on Friday there was also entertainment after racing (Cerys Matthews).

The racing on Friday was very good – quality horses turned out, finishes were exciting and in general I can’t praise the actual racing highly enough.

BUT. By advertising the “come racing and have a good time” aspect, they are attracting some not-so-desirable clients. I’ll come to the general racing experience for the average racegoer in a minute, but having queued in traffic to get into the course for an hour and half (for three miles distance), and thereby missing the first two races, with no police or traffic marshal presence and no idea what was happening, I then discovered that one of the main entrances to the course was blocked because paramedics were dealing with a bloke who had passed out in the middle of the road…..Now I don’t know whether he was drunk, but the attitude of the paramedics indicated to me that he was. OK, courses can’t legislate for idiots, but they could have tried to manage the traffic problem a whole lot better. One drunk does not a traffic jam make, in my book! And looking back at some notes I wrote when the course was still being built, I notice that I remarked then that they would have to be very careful about traffic flow because the roads to the course are country ones and not too hot, to be honest!

The website insisted that tickets would be sold out – they weren’t. I got mine in advance, but people were still being admitted at the gates. Too many people, really, and not enough of them interested in or even bothered about the racing.

Point by point, my observations are:

a. There weren’t enough loos; by mid-afternoon they were disgraceful

b. Access to the pre-parade is now allowed (an improvement)

c. It is almost impossible to get into the stand if you want to see the horses in the paddock AND have a bet, because the concourse in front of the stands is railed off from the stands themselves, and was almost entirely occupied by drinkers

d. Tote staff were looking a bit drained by the end; probably because of the same girlie overload that I noticed at the previous meeting

e. Food had improved – still expensive (when isn’t it!) but at least there was more variety and a good coffee outlet

f. The circulating beer backpacks were much in evidence. I have taken a serious dislike to these because it seems to me that they put the emphasis on drinking not racing, and it’s all too easy for people to get hammered

g. There seems to be something wrong with the whole design of the spectator areas – the space in front of the stands is too small and was packed (there is no lawn or even benches, as at most established courses – the on-course bookies also take up a lot of space. Not their fault, but getting anywhere was difficult.) I don’t want to “watch” racing from behind the stands…..this may improve with a smaller crowd, but the design of racecourse facilities shouldn’t depend for success on whether the crowd is a big one or not

h. Having now visited Ffos Las three times, I think they have made one very big mistake and one not so big. The different facilities, (pre-parade, parade ring, owners and trainers bar and facilities, weighing room, stands, racecourse-side concourse, bookies’ pitches, loos) seem to have been plonked down at random with no architectural cohesion or consideration of the need for racegoers, whoever they are, to move between one and another. It is unfair in the extreme to compare it to Newmarket July, which is by far the best-laid-out course I have ever visited (Cheltenham included). But as Ffos Las started with a blank piece of paper for the 21st century, you’d think they would have done something a bit more imaginative. The not so big mistake, which can be put right if attention is paid to it, is traffic management for bigger meetings (although I suspect they may have been overwhelmed by unexpected volume of traffic). And please God can they stop the practice of coaches and minibuses having to drop their passengers at the entrance and park elsewhere – this means that people who perhaps bring picnics because they are not able to pay inflated prices for poor on-course food must either go with their coach to a bleak car-park on the far edge, or waste the picnic they have prepared. Thus, Ffos Las will drive away the less-well-off; and in this part of Wales, can they afford to do that?

i. Lastly, facilities for the disabled are very poor. There are no disabled viewing platforms, as far as I can see (even LUDLOW has them, for God’s sake!), and all the portaloos had steps, which meant that as there were huge queues for the “regular” loos, the disabled had either to barge their way to the front or wait far too long…..I presume Ffos Las complies with current legislation, but frankly, I would have found the meeting, if in a wheelchair, torture of the worst kind.

I think that Ffos Las management, with a bit more effort, could provide a very good “racing experience” – there is no doubt that the racing itself, so far, has been very good, and the course first class. But in this day and age, that isn’t enough – paying customers expect perhaps a bit more than is being offered at the moment. New venues are always difficult, because they have to be allowed to bed in and by being used, to discover what is good and what needs to be changed. I’ll be happy to return on a less crowded day for either Flat or jumps, but for those joining me (and I hope there are many!) be prepared to put up with a fair few niggles.

I am suspending judgement on whether the course has the “legs” to establish itself as a permanent fixture, given the dire story of Great Leighs and the fact that racing isn’t recession-proof. I hope it does. But I’ll wait and see.

© JennyWales 2009-08-30

PS Rumour has it locally that Dai Walters is about to sell his share in Ffos Las….