Author: Richard Hammill

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

The lead up to the first race meeting of the year is always a hectic time. But being busy brings out the best in the team at Ponte and I couldn’t be prouder of the way that the whole team has knuckled down to get everything done and the place looking ship shape for the new season.

It’s a credit to the team just how much they’ve done in the last two weeks. Tackling decorating schemes in the toilets and finishing off improvement works to all the facilities for those with special accessibility requirements has taken a herculean effort but everything looks great ahead of racing on the 11^th April.

The works to the accessible viewing areas and toilets has all been done in house by the Groundstaff team. Jacob and Mandy from Live Tourism carried out an assessment on the Racecourse at the end of 2022 and gave us so many ideas as to how we could make big improvements with some small steps. We’ve revamped all the accessible toilet areas, painting walls and grab rails in contrasting colours, installing mirrors, privacy areas and new RADAR keys. The viewing areas have all been enlarged, concreted and the access to them has been upgraded.

We’ve also installed Hearing Loops in a number of areas and, with the help of Go Racing in Yorkshire installed sunflower benches in quiet spots around the Racecourse to enable those who need a little bit of peace and quiet, to have the space they require.  

We’re not the biggest Racecourse in the country, we don’t have the biggest team and we certainly don’t have the biggest budgets. But we have success. And the reason we have that is the sense of belonging, the camaraderie and the desire to get things done. A sense of pride and the will to succeed.

As everyone enjoys the long Bank Holiday, we’d like to give a massive shout out to Racing Staff from every corner of the industry up and down the country who work such unsociable hours: early mornings, late nights, Bank Holidays and weekends – they’re all the same. There’s a great support network via Racing Welfare .

There are times when it feels like the job takes over. And that’s when you need your racing family – it’s a tight bond but it means that we have a great sport.

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

It’s been a busy but rewarding week at Ponte Towers.

We view Staff Training as one of the most essential parts of our business and we spent much of Wednesday briefing existing, and new, raceday staff ahead of the start of the 2023 racing season.

For a Racecourse, the team of casual raceday staff can often be the first part of the racegoer journey on a day at the races and so it is imperative that the customer facing team know and understand both the layout of the Racecourse AND the brand and the core values of what Pontefract stand for. We want them to embrace the true Yorkshire spirit that the Racecourse embodies and exude Yorkshire hospitality from the moment that customers arrive.

We want our Staff to feel valued and a full part of the Pontefract family. We want them to know how we’ve responded to their feedback from last season, what improvements we’ve made to make their roles easier as well as keep them up to date with the latest health and safety guidance and ‘hot topics’ that they may need to address.

Inspection reports from the like of AA , Visit England and Live Tourism form a vital part of our Staff training and help us to build a better team to ensure that we can offer the best possible service to our racegoers.

No good staff training day is complete without a tour of the Racecourse to maximise orientation knowledge but by far the most important part is a good catch with their friends and colleagues over a big lunch – thanks to Jo and Andy at Huggamug for providing an incredible spread!

From Staff Training on Wednesday to our ‘Welcome to 2023’ Pre Season Launch on Thursday – no rest for the wicked.

There was an extensive guest list with invitees from across the industry (ROA, PJA, owners, trainers, sponsors, Press) and it was great to see such a brilliant turnout to learn about some of the fantastic events we have in store in 2023.

We also handed out a few very special awards for the first time too. Most people know that we like to do things the ‘Ponte’ way and so there was never going to be recognition of those who receive it regularly. Instead, we wanted to highlight some of our true Ponte heroes and Flint Hill , Round The Island, Corinthia Knight and Mr Orange were very worthy recipients. While the last named is enjoying a long and happy retirement, the first three will reportedly be back in action in April at Ponte. We shouldn’t have favourites, but we’ll definitely be cheering them on!  

Welcome to the second blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard, who is writing this blog.

Value on Racecourses – 22 December 2022

Much has been published about pricing at British Racecourses: from the cost of entry, to the cost of food and drink once you’re inside the course – indeed, the Racing Post published their Racecourse Prices Index with visits around the courses undertaken in 2022.

The ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ is an overused phrase but is a very real concept and it has been looming large on the horizon for a few months now. It’s something that we’re painfully aware of – from a business perspective, from a personal perspective and from the point of view of our customers.

So how do we address it? How do we keep racing as cost effective as possible, offering genuine value, while still managing the increasing tariffs that are being directed towards us? 

It’s a fine balance. We hope we’re on the right lines but, as 2023 dawns, we’ll need to keep an eye on how the year progresses.

We want everyone to feel they are getting value:

1. We recognise the different costs in staging race meetings.
   A midweek Tuesday afternoon does not cost as much to stage as, for example, a Friday evening or a Sunday when there are additional considerations and attractions.
   So we’ve introduced differential costs.
   This means that over 80% of the race meetings in 2023 will cost less, or the same, than in 2022.

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2. We put on great early bird offers.
I’ve not been to as many Two Circles workshops as I have without learning the mantra that the best price should be the first price – ‘The earlier you book, the cheaper it is!’

And it works! Start the sales curve early! The customer saves and we get income at a time of year when we would not normally have any, helping us to spread the annual costs.

3. We offer value packages.
We’ve teamed up with our catering partner to offer what we think are some great packages. We’ve got a new offering which I think gives exceptional value.
We also got the opportunity to make a fun video advert to sit alongside the promotion which is always an added bonus!
It’s really important to us to have a ‘Yorkshire’ voice in everything we do. Did someone say Flat Caps and Whippets? Of course…

4. Give back to the regulars
It sounds like a clichéd line, but we are incredibly grateful for those who choose to spend their hard earned cash at Ponte and so there’s a loyalty card, concessions for students and OAPs as well as free entry for different customer groups on a variety of days.  

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Racecourse caterers come in for a fair amount of stick and, to be honest, they are fighting a losing battle most of the time. Rising staff costs, staff shortages, brewery increases, rising food prices – who’d be a caterer?

We had the first of our pricing meetings for 2023 last week. They’re long, involved, difficult meetings and it can be a battle.

Customers often tell us they can get their pint at ‘their local’ much cheaper. And it’s true – they absolutely can. What is sometimes overlooked is that ‘their local’ doesn’t move the travelling catering circus in and out for just 16 times a year – they operate 365 days a year – and the costs of set up and clearing up are huge.

It’s not that I’m trying to defend them – some of the prices that are put forward at early meetings are over the top. We take quite a unique viewpoint in that we subsidise some items so that the entry level price to the customer is fair.  It’s important to try and wear the customer’s shoes and think about times when you’ve felt taken advantage of as a customer and avoid that at all costs.

Anyway, speaking of food and drink, it’s Christmas! So, to end, here’s our glorious Carol to set the Christmas mood.

Have a great Christmas and New Year and we’ll see you on the other side when Alexia will be writing her first blog!

 

Welcome to the first official blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!). Firstly, let me introduce the Admin team:

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard, who is writing the first blog.

Ponte Pride – 9 December 2022

A long time ago, back in November 2019, in a world before Covid was even a thing, the team at Ponte were incredibly honoured to be crowned the Champion Racecourse at the Racecourse Association Showcase Awards hosted by the reigning champions, Hamilton.

For obvious reasons, we’ve not been able to host the event since until our chance finally came round on 10^th November this year.

With around 250 delegates due to be in attendance, we set to creating a Showcase Event that was truly befitting of Ponte, making sure that the gathered masses, many of whom had not been to Pontefract before, were truly welcomed into our racing world with our brand and Yorkshire heritage dominant in every aspect of the event.

For those that have not been to Ponte before, the logistics of organising an event for 250 people on the site are challenging to say the least. We do not have a conference or restaurant facility large enough to seat this size of party , and, with the majority of the site on a pronounced slope, options for a marquee were limited. The only way round the problems was to site a marquee on the track itself, just beyond the winning post. But with no services close by, we had to arrange gas, electric and water as well.

What seemed like a great idea in November ’19, suddenly seemed to be something of a mission impossible.

But we don’t like to be beaten and the team pulled together in the most incredible way. The marquee company, our catering team, our fantastic groundstaff, the office team and the wonderful marketing team from the RCA left no stone unturned.

Marquees were put up, walkways were covered, red carpet was laid, walls and woodwork were repainted, lawns were manicured, bathrooms were given a makeover and 250 Yorkshire goodie bags were packed. I cannot begin to tell you how immensely proud I was of the whole team of pulling off such an impressive and seamless event.

As is often the case, beneath the elegant exterior of the graceful swan, there was a whole lot going on under the surface to ensure that everything went smoothly. The delegates didn’t see that the generator failed straight after the seminar section of the afternoon meaning our electrician was poised by a replacement generator for 4 hours solid! They didn’t see the industrial heater breakdown meaning one of the team needed to re-set it every 4 or 5 minutes. They didn’t see the aftermath the morning after. But that is what makes an event great I guess – a brilliant team, pulling together to ensure that the customer has a great experience.

To win two awards on the night was absolutely the icing on the cake – the Marketing Award for our ‘Silver Surfers and OAP Free Day’ Campaign and the Food & Beverage Award for our amazing on site café, Huggamug.

The event gave us two weeks of apprehension and, at times, terror, but was one of the most brilliant nights we’ve had. All down to teamwork and hard graft.

All the best to the new Showcase Champions, Aintree. We can’t wait to celebrate with you in 2023!