UTTOXETER RACECOURSE REVIEW

SUNDAY 28th JUNE 2015
PREMIER ENCLOSURE (members)
ENTRANCE £22
RACECARD £3
VISITED WITH WIFE
The course at Uttoxeter is easy to find as it is in the town itself, next to the railway station and is well signposted from the main roads. It does take quite a long time to exit the course here, as most of the traffic goes through the town centre. Once you have left the car park you still have traffic problems getting to where you want to go. Knowing this and visiting the course quite often, I now always turn left out of the car park and go through the lanes past the golf course, avoiding the traffic jams you encounter in the town centre, it may add about 1 mile on to your journey but it's well worth the time you will save trying to navigate the town.
The bookies at Uttoxeter on the day totalled 8 on the rails, these are lined up at the bottom of the premier grandstand, the minimum stakes with these were £5 win or £2.50 EW with 7 of them and one had a £2 min win or £2 EW. In the main betting ring located in front of the Prince Edward Stand there were 31 bookies, 4 of them had a £5 min win with 2 of them also offering £2.50 EW and the other 2 a £5 EW min. 26 bookies had a £2 min win bet with 14 of these having a £1 EW min and the others having a £2 EW min, there was also a single bookie who had a £1 or £1EW min bet. The one thing that was noticeable here was that most of the bookies in the ring offered lowered EW terms so make sure you check what the terms are before placing an EW bet. The on course betting shops are run by Betfred they have 2 different shops on course, one being a hut by the paddock and the other one inside the Prince Edward Stand, both were well laid out and had plenty of staff on. There are also plenty of Tote windows around the top end of the enclosure but none once you get past the main stand. You get a good internet coverage through the enclosure so you'll have no problem getting a bet on with your mobile or checking the OLBG site, whose members on the day picked 4 out of the 8 winners and if you used them for your placepot picks you would have also got that up.
The facilities at Uttoxeter have improved beyond recognition since I first started going there in the 80's. They have plenty of bars and places to eat around the course. The main bar in tatts can get very busy, as can the main bar in members. If you use the bars around the paddock and the marquee that is situated between the main grandstand and the older one that is toward the furlong pole it's a lot easier to get served. My preference at Uttoxeter is the Champagne bar that's towards the paddock as it's probably the quietest of the bars and one of the few places at the course you can manage to get a seat. Along with the seating around the course the toilet facilities are the major negatives about it. Even though there are 4 sets of toilets around the course the only ones where you don't usually face a long wait are towards the bottom of the enclosure in the old grandstand, and the wife says it can sometimes take 10 minutes to queue for the ladies in the newer ones. The paddock at Uttoxeter is not the largest and it can sometimes be difficult to get a good look at the horses in here unless you get there early.
The viewing from the main grandstand from either members or tatts is very good, although, unless you watch the action on the big screen, you lose sight of the horses around the bend past the winning post for a few seconds as they pass the caravans that are usually there. Apart from this you have a good view of the whole course even though binoculars are helpful to get a good view coming around the top turn if you don't use the big screen. The view from the old grandstand is also good but you lose sight of the horses for longer here as they go around the bend past the winning post, it's not quite as high here and you have buildings in the centre that obscure your view too. Viewing from the top of the grandstand is good in members as there are seats available here. There is a grassy bank past the stands that you can watch the racing from, this gives you a good view of the course and you can stand next to either of the final two fences (the second from home is my usual place to watch the chases from as you have a good view of the whole course from here even though you can struggle to hear the commentary). I usually go into the grandstand for the hurdle races.
The course itself is a sharp mile and a quarter left-handed oval with a right-handed kink in the back straight with a hill at the end of the back straight. The fences are quite stiff so you need a horse who's a good jumper especially with there being 4 fences in the home straight that's 4 furlongs in length one being an open ditch and the last one being inside the final furlong so if they make a mistake at the last there's not a lot of time to recover from it. There are 2 hurdles in the home straight but again you need the horse to be effective over the obstacles as the last is again inside the final furlong so it's easy to lose a race here. It suits a nippy horse rather than out and out galloper and front runner, prominently ridden horses seem to do well here.
On the whole Uttoxeter is a well-run friendly course that has become more popular in recent years, it is easy to get to by either road or rail. You have a good view of the course and can get close to the action by going to stand by the fences if you want. I don't usually go into members when going racing but Uttoxeter is one of the courses I do, it is only a couple of pounds more and due to there being a lack of seating in tatts I would rather have the better facilities in members. Remember, if you're backing EW with the on course bookies make sure you look at what terms they are offering.