No.10 – Catterick

Tuesday 15 September 2015
Catterick, North Yorkshire
Distance travelled: 92.8 miles
Attendance: 1,564

I have a feeling that over the course of this blog, avoiding the overuse of the word ‘traditional’ is going to be impossible, so I wont even bother trying. Catterick is a proper traditional course, with stands from the golden age of stadium design when architects seemingly built whatever they felt like building on that particular day, before they all had guns put to their heads and were forced to work off a generic steel and glass design. The course overall is very compact, with free parking in the fields across the road, stands nice and tight to the track and parade ring/winners enclosure barely even walking distance from wherever you are.
The grandstand roof is peppered with house martin nests, there’s a bar that felt like a cosy traditional (ffs…) local, and a garden shed type affair with an impressive armoury of sweets. To reach one of the toilets you walk down something akin to a football players tunnel. At the far end is a stand with a terrace on its second tier, the sort of thing any old skool stadium geek worth their salt would build just for the sake of it. In other words, character everywhere you look!

 

The atmosphere was very laid back and it was nice to be amongst a crowd who seemed to be there as horse racing fans first and foremost, with a strong contingent of owners also in attendance noticeable by their green badges.
In the first race I backed Geno, who aside from the usual stuff was Jamie Spencers only ride of the day. This either meant he was bored and just fancied a drive out, or hopefully that the horse had a proper chance. It appeared I wasn’t alone in this thought process as despite the eventual winner Shaka Zulu going off as joint favourite with my selection, it seemed like absolutely nobody was cheering it home on its way to a very comfortable victory!
The ball finally got rolling in race 3 with Show Palace getting there on the line after a well timed ride from Graham Lee – the inevitable horror of going through a card without a win staved off for another day!

I promised myself when I decided I really was going to undertake this little adventure that i’d be disciplined and keep to a £5 stake each race. Partly because it was all going to be expensive enough as it is, partly to make it simpler to keep a track of profit/loss and partly because i’m a tight you know what. A flurry of barely watchable rides and 2nd place sob stories later and all that was launched well out the window…
Jockey Rachel Richardson went into the meet with an impressive strike rate for the season by anyone’s measure never mind as an apprentice, but hadn’t scored in her 2 rides on the day so far. Considering the head in hands level of triviality some successfully employ to pick winners, using the law of averages to justify my lack of self control seemed perfectly reasonable!
After that preamble I should probably lie and claim I parted company with a grand or whichever of my kidneys still works, rather than the whopping £20 I won on Show Palace earlier in the day. Still, £20 is £20 on Fillydelphia, an 8/1 shot with no wins in 14 career runs.
As the race drew closer everything was going as you’d hope. The horse bounded to post like it meant business and the odds tumbled into 4/1. Far too positive and I was just waiting to see it refuse to go in the stalls or break out of the course and run off over the horizon. Instead she travelled well throughout before hitting the front with 2 furlongs to go and never really coming under pressure – cue lots of celebratory fist pumping and swearing!
The perfect way to end the day, albeit tinged with the nagging thought that I may well have peaked with 49 courses still to go…

Booooooom!

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon at a well laid out course with decent views. I fully understand why most have family fun days, music nights etc… in their calendar and i’ve attended plenty myself, but I want to try and see courses in their purest form, for better or worse, and I reckon I hit the spot on this day. It has to be said that all the staff I encountered – be it on the gates, in the car park or behind the bar were very friendly/helpful and a credit to Catterick racecourse. This is definitely one i’ll be making return visits to.

Highlight(s) of the day: The ‘lucky last’ finally proving so!
Standing on a terrace with men smoking pipes.
Lowlight: None really but if we’re being picky then 3 x 2nd’s was frustrating.

Selections:
2:00 – Geno (2nd of 10)
2:30 – Zain Emperor (7/10)
3:00 – Show Palace (1/9) at 3/1
3:30 – Lazy Sioux (7/11)
4:00 – Miss Macnamara (8/11)
4:30 – Edgar Balthazar (2/14)
5:00 – Goadby (2/11)
5:30 – Fillydelphia (1/10) at 8/1