Taking the kids to the horse races?

[mirrorballbabe]

Hi everyone,

My friend was telling me about taking her kids to the horse races; basically tickets for the kids are free at lots of horse racing events, and there are lots of fun activities for them to do and they can run around outside. Just had a look on the website and it looks really family friendly, and I know my DH would love it, but when I think horse racing I think gambling and booze...has anyone been before? Does anyone else here think it sounds fun?

Give it a miss, the horses are treated appallingly. Children can go to much more fun places to run around so take them somewhere fun and let your DH go on his own.

We've been a few times with our dd aged 8. We go on the family side where there is a bouncy castle and rides for kids. We take a picnic and she loves it

I don't have children myself, but I always see plenty there when I go to the races. They have special 'family fun days' with inflatable castles, face-paints etc. Children go free, or some courses have an enclosure where you pay per vehicle which have fewer facilities but attract family picnics on a nice day.

I've never seen any trouble due to drinking etc. (I usually go to fairly small courses because they tend to be cheaper so can't speak for big events such as the Grand National). Drinks tend to be overpriced with long queues, so it isn't somewhere I would go for a boozy trip.

You don't have to gamble. If you want to just for the experience, most of the tic-tac-toe stands will accept a £1 or £2 bet.

It's a fab place to people-watch if that's your bag too!

I used to go with me dad tbf, I usually put a fiver of a bet on a couple, no one got hurt!

I was thinking of taking my son. He's 8. I've been in the past as I used to go regularly around 20 years ago. I would agree with the comments about finding a smaller event and venue. Races like the Grand National, even Scottish or Welsh, will be very very busy. A small venue over the jumps and one where you can have a picnic, would be a great day out.

We used to go all the time as children. There will prob be loads of children there, especially this time of year. Generally it's very family friendly. I'm on Ireland but I presume it's the same elsewhere.

I always used to go, with my DF and DGF - that was in Ireland in the 1980s, and all the children went. It was a long day but we would pick horses and DGF would put one bet on for us - I enjoyed it.