Study ranks every British horse racecourse – Top 20 revealed

With around 7 million visitors attending horse race events in the UK and Ireland in 2019, it’s set to be a record year for attendances in 2022 following the two-year enforced break. For racegoers eager to get back to the action, which venue promises the ultimate day out? BoyleSports wanted to find out!

Of the 85 horse racecourses in the British Isles, it’s Ascot that takes the crown with a final score of 83.7 out of 85, followed closely by Cheltenham (83.5), and Chester (81.6) – https://betting.boylesports.com/horse-racing/revealed-uk-and-irelands-best-loved-racecourses-horse-racing

Top 20 Racecourses in UK & Ireland

Rank	Racecourse	Type	Country	UK Attendances (2019)	Review Score	No. Reviews	Social Following	Instagram Posts	Search Volume	Search Volume YoY Trend (Google)	Final Score
1	Ascot	Mixed	England	586362	9.1	6259	211887	330556	9900	1.75	83.7
2	Cheltenham	Jump	England	459348	9	4998	164572	169483	27100	8.17	83.5
3	Chester	Flat	England	240541	8.4	4360	54252	73112	8100	2.38	81.6
4	York	Flat	England	320911	8.5	3943	54555	78317	9900	2.38	81.5
5	Doncaster	Mixed	England	217181	8.4	4318	67772	23777	8100	4.21	81.2
6	Aintree	Jump	England	181090	8.5	3276	87651	33947	9900	2.36	78.8
7	Newbury	Mixed	England	178228	8.4	2569	54394	21515	14800	1.74	78.3
8	Goodwood	Flat	England	223260	8.6	2146	94950	18259	8100	2.6	76.8
9	Haydock Park	Mixed	England	163360	8.3	2966	37673	14822	2400	1.9	76.7
10	Newmarket	Flat	England	329939	8.5	2083	34702	32836	5400	0.81	74.0
11	Sandown Park	Mixed	England	151284	8.4	3124	27197	1539	2900	8.15	71.6
12	Newcastle	Mixed	England	100777	7.8	1808	33635	13064	6600	1.28	71.5
13	Epsom Downs	Flat	England	104533	8.5	3055	27157	41190	2400	0	71.1
14	Uttoxeter	Jump	England	108634	8.2	1066	32749	5908	4400	3.09	70.4
15	Leopardstown	Mixed	Republic of Ireland	175357	8.9	1584	69152	4677	1300	3.07	70.2
16	Chelmsford City	Flat	England	75487	8.3	1724	37536	2337	2900	2.6	70.0
17	Windsor	Flat	England	90671	8.2	1281	28306	9702	8100	1.75	70.0
18	Beverley	Flat	England	82233	9	1304	33265	6284	2400	0.48	69.1
19	Ayr	Mixed	Scotland	80940	8.2	1550	33722	10245	4400	-0.19	68.0
20	Galway	Mixed	Republic of Ireland	141705	9	1515	92636	56680	170	0.5	67.9

Attended by nearly 600,000 people a year (which accounts for just shy of 10% of all racegoers) and home to Royal Ascot, it’s no surprise to see Ascot racecourse in the number one spot. Racing has been held here since 1711, but the punters today love it as much as ever with a Tripadvisor score of 4.5 and over 300,000 Instagram posts and 200,000 Facebook likes.

The top three is also made up of Cheltenham – home to the Gold Cup – with the Cheltenham Festival in March always kicking off the horseracing calendar with a bang. Cheltenham is certainly the most-searched-for racecourse and holds its own in terms of social media. Interestingly Chester makes the top three – after all, it is the oldest racecourse still in operation in the world. And wow what a setting too. No wonder it’s the most reviewed racecourse on Tripadvisor in the UK and Ireland.

Home of the Grand National – arguably the most well-known horse race in the world – Aintree makes the top 10 at number six, whilst York and Doncaster sneak into the top five. The headquarters of British horseracing, Newmarket, just makes the top 10.

Leon Blanche, Head of Communications at BoyleSports comments: “There’s nothing quite like a day at the races. From the hype around Royal Ascot, to the Instagram coverage and the chance to see the world’s best runners and riders in the flesh, we love it in the UK and Ireland. In fact, we love it so much that just shy of 7 million of us turned out in our finery with our betting slips in hand to get trackside at the races in 2019.

At BoyleSports we wanted to settle the debate once and for all and find out which is the most loved racecourse by racegoers. And to really understand the love, we had to look at a variety of factors. Which course is getting talked about the most on social media, which do the punters rate the most in terms of experience and which is being searched for on Google. All this information enables us to build out a picture of where the love really lives when it comes to our racecourses.”

The Formula

To compile the 2022 best-loved horse racecourse index, key factors were analysed to create an overall score for each venue. BoyleSports began with attendances, looking at the number of race day goers through the turnstiles for the full 2019 season. Next came each course’s total visitor score based on Tripadvisor and Google ratings and the combined number of user reviews to ascertain if the punters are enjoying themselves when going to the races at each course. And in today’s racing world, with social media playing such an important part, BoyleSports scored each location on Facebook likes, Instagram followers, and the number of Instagram posts. Finally, we also wanted to look at the volume of people searching for each racecourse through Google and how this is changing year on year to ascertain popularity trends.