Chester Races

From Chester Wiki

Oh god, I love the races! I went through a phase a few years back of going to every meeting, in the County Stand (the posh bit) and I did have some wonderful, marvellous times, and did lose lots and lots of money (relatively speaking of course, I always limit myself to £50 as a maximum). With that in mind, and with the Chester Race season upon us, I have written this lovely guide for you all to ponder, and make use of.

Contents 1 Some History 2 Where to go? 2.1 Rough it in the middle (where the common people go!) 2.2 The Dee Standy Thing (If you can call it that) 2.3 Tattersalls (average jack's hide away) 2.4 The County Stand (the supposedly posh bit)

[edit] Some History

Wikipedia says "The 65-acre racecourse lies on the banks of the River Dee. The site was a harbour from the Roman settlement of the city, through the Dark Ages, but was closed as the river silted up, making navigation impossible. The centre of this area is marked by a raised mound, decorated with a small cross, known as a "rood", giving the site of the race course the name "Roodee", a corruption of "Rood Eye", meaning "The Island of the Cross".

"According to legend, the cross marks the burial site of a statue of the Virgin Mary sentenced to hang after causing the death of Lady Trawst, wife of the Governor of Hawarden. According to the legend, the lady had gone to church to pray for rain. When her prayers were answered by a tremendous thunderstorm, the statue was loosened and fell, killing her. As a holy object, hanging or burning the statue would be sacrilege so the statue was left by the banks of the river and the tide carried it down to Chester.

The Hawarden Visitors' Hand-Book (1890) by William Henry Gladstone gives the full story as follows:

In the sixth year of the reign of Conan, King of North Wales, there was in the Christian Temple at a place called Harden, in the Kingdom of North Wales, a Roodloft, in which was placed an image of the Virgin Mary, with a very large cross, which was in the hands of the image, called Holy Rood. About this time there happened a very hot and dry summer; so dry that there was not grass for the cattle; upon which most of the inhabitants went and prayed to the image or Holy Rood, that it would cause it to rain, but to no purpose. Among the rest, the Lady Trawst (whose husband's name was Sytsylht, a nobleman and governor of Harden Castle) went to pray to the said Holy Rood, and she praying earnestly and long, the image or Holy Rood fell down upon her head and killed her; upon which a great uproar was raised, and it was concluded and resolved upon to try the said image for the murder of the said Lady Trawst, and a jury was summoned for this purpose, whose names were as follows:--

  Hincot of Hancot, Span of Mancot,
  Leech and Leach, and Cumberbeach.
  Peet and Pate, with Corbin of the gate,
  Milling and Hughet, with Gill and Pughet.

The Jury--so continues the story--found the Holy Rood guilty of wilful murder, and the sentence was proposed that she should be hanged. This was opposed by Span, who suggested that, as they wanted rain, it would be best to drown her. This, again, was objected to by Corbin, who advised to lay her on the sands of the river and see what became of her. This was done, with the result that the image was carried by the tide to some low land near the wall of Caerleon--(supposed to be Chester)--where it was found by the Cestrians drowned and dead, and by them buried at the gate where found, with this inscription:--

  The Jews their God did crucify,
  The Hardeners theirs did drown,
  'Cos, with their wants she'd not comply,
  And lies under this cold stone.

Hence the said low land, or island, as it may have been, is supposed to have got the name of the Rood-Eye, or Roodee as at present.

"In an alternate version of the legend, the statue was instead carried to St John's church. An ancient statue of the Virgin was recorded at the time of the reformation but may not be the same one. The statue was thrown down as a relic of popery, used as a whipping post for scholars and burned. The site was formerly the home of the original Chester Midsummer Watch Parade, temporarily banned by Oliver Cromwell but finally abolished in 1677.

"The east of the racecourse leads straight onto Chester's city walls, once used to moor Roman trading vessels, and the Grosvenor Bridge, at one point the longest single-arch bridge in the world, passes over the south-eastern corner while the north of the course is bordered by a long bridge carrying the North Wales Coast Line.

"Races originally took place on Goteddsday (Shrove Tuesday) and St George's Day, both major festivals during the medieval period. However, prior to that the site was home to the famous and bloody Goteddsday football match. The game was very violent and, in 1533, banned by the city, to be replaced in 1539 by horse racing. Victors were awarded the "Chester Bells", a set of decorative bells for decorating the horse's bridle, and later the "Grosvenor Gold Cup", a small tumbler made from solid gold (later silver). However, the racecourse was at that point still just an open field, with the first grandstand built in 1817 and the first admission fee not being taken until 1897.

"The old stand was destroyed by fire in 1900 and replaced by a wooden stand that was totally destroyed by a second fire set by an arsonist in 1985."

So there you go, that is far better than I could have put it!

Yawn, enough of that...

Sorry about that, but it does pad the guide out a bit, and is good to know for pub quizzes and the like. The racecourse itself is just over a mile long and the horses run anticlockwise. Apparently the course has a very short run-in, and as such prefers horses with long strides, although I prefer the ones with nice names.

Anyway, onto the more juicy stuff.

[edit] Where to go?

To be fair, the whole point of a day at the races is that you can drink and gamble, but let's deal with the drinking aspect first, eh? You have a few choices as to where you go on the course, and the prices alter drastically depending on if you want to rough it or prance around looking like you are posh and that you do this sort of thing all the time.

[edit] Rough it in the middle (where the common people go!)

Although when I say rough it, the open ground option does have some extreme benefits. It's cheap, usually about £7 to get in, which is a bargain for a day's racing. Almost as good as that is that fact that you can pretty much take what you want in with you, just drive in baby! So as well as paying the same as a packet of fags (almost) for your entry, you can stock up on a crate of Stella and put the Bucks Fizz on ice and really save your money for the betting.

You can also take barbeques into the course if you go in the middle. Picture it, you and a group of friends or family, sitting in the July sun sipping from a lukewarm can of Stella and watching your sausages burn! On top of that you get to watch the horsies! Not bad eh?

[edit] The Dee Standy Thing (If you can call it that)

A slightly pricier option, but you do get to stand on a sloping terrace, which is good for midgets, I suppose. Pricing is about a tenner and the bookies (as in the middle) can be found at the bottom of the terrace in there little huts. The bookies, by the way, as you would expect are spread out all over the course so you will have no problems getting to one in a hurry for that last-minute crucial bet. I will be honest with you here and tell you that I have never actually been in the Dee Stand, it just looks like a poor man's Tats and for people who are too vain to go into the middle with all the rabble. Which leads us too....

[edit] Tattersalls (average jack's hide away)

A strange one this. It's sort of a compromise between the middle and the County Stand. I say that because you can pretty much go where you like - apart from the County Stand. You get entry to the paddock and the parade ring, so you get the proper feel of being a betting guru, and you can take your drinks ANYWHERE you want, which, as you will see, is a BIG bonus. It costs about £20 for your entry, but I think it's worth it, as it means you can still dress up nice, but you can DRINK ANYWHERE YOU WANT! Which leads nicely into......

[edit] The County Stand (the supposedly posh bit)

"Grrrrrrr! Move it! Get out of the way titty! But I want to take my drink with me!"

Expect a lot of this if you go for the County Stand option. At about £ 37 pound a head, you would think that this would be where the footballers hang out smoking Cuban cigars, and that you would have plenty of room to swing as many cats as you like. Well, don't be fooled. You don't. The racecourse owners cram, and I mean cram, this place full, and who can blame them if people are willing to pay. Ok, everyone looks very nice and you get a cool little badge saying County Stand on it, but they are pretty much the only advantages that I can see. The bars are heaving (especially on the weekends) and you CAN'T TAKE YOUR DRINK OUTSIDE!!! Yes, you heard me right, you pay all that money, and then you have to spend the day rushing around. The day will go like this -

• Get there, go to the bar and queue for 10 to 20 minutes

• Down your pint/wine so that you can go outside and watch the race

• watch the race

• go back and queue at the bar for another 10 minutes

• down your drink so that you can watch the next race

• and so on and so on and so on....

Honestly, that is what it's like. So my advice to you - either go in the middle or go to Tats, and avoid the Dee and County Stands like the plague.

Check out the Events page for details of this years meetings.

Chesterw 07:37, 17 February 2007 (CST)