DISTRESS was all around in Norfolk yesterday. Pubs on the Broads were flooded and, just down the coast, a tornado had struck, flattening a circus big top. Not great weather for a family holiday, then, and in the squalls of Great Yarmouth the bucket-and-spaders had a limited choice — bingo at Britannia Pier, a stroll up the tackiest shopping street in the country or a day at the races.
Those who chose the bingo had the debatable bonus of staying on for The Grumbleweeds last night, while shoppers venturing past the tattoo and body piercing and the exotic underwear could pause at Gypsy Harriet Lee, who claims she has advised any number of trainers and jockeys on their prosperous future.
Yarmouth is changing. Not quite a gentrification, but a gradual modernisation. The racecourse is to the fore, as those who picked their way in from the partly waterlogged car park will testify. Henry Cecil had not been here for a year, maybe two. He noticed the difference.
They have spent £5 million on facilities since Northern Racing took control and, although the front page of the town newspaper is troubled by the council underselling the site and scandalised that councillors apparently receive free tickets as part of the deal, the paying public has seen the greater benefits.
Yesterday, the showpiece Lord Nelson Stand was doing a healthy trade — at least until the rain returned in earnest, topping up the 87mm that fell in a week since the last meeting. Freakish rain through August has been a mixed blessing for holiday racecourses. At Brighton yesterday, the ground began as good and the fields were big. By contrast, Newton Abbot last weekend suffered some small fields, as few soft-ground jumpers are ready to run.
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Crowd levels have also been fickle. Brighton reports being 10 per cent down on a year ago, despite a healthy three-day festival. Just down the coast, Folkestone has drawn its biggest crowds in decades to evening meetings. Newton Abbot had 6,000 each day last week but, mostly, the story is of a struggle.
Katharine Self, general manager at Yarmouth, was not unhappy to see the showers yesterday. “If it’s sunny, holidaymakers find other things to do,” she said. “We are down on our budget attendance this year — we’ve talked to the holiday park managers and they mirror our problems. Numbers of people coming to Yarmouth are down.”
It is tempting to conclude that the public is becoming more discerning but this would be a disservice to a progressive racecourse. Yarmouth is not a sporting mecca — despite a bowls festival and the FA Cup being on show at the town’s football club yesterday — but it is worth a return visit by all those people who have not been racing here for a while. People such as Henry Cecil.
He wore suede loafers yesterday, which did not look their best as he waded around the winner’s enclosure after Posteritas had recorded his biggest victory of the season. Scoring with a bottom-weight in the Saltwell Signs Virgina Rated Stakes would not, in the past, have registered on Cecil’s ambitions, but a listed winner is an agreeable rarity these days.
Later, Kieren Fallon stretched his lead in the jockeys’ table to 12, the going was changed to heavy and the runners in the two-miler were spread out the length of the seafront. It did not bode well for Yarmouth’s big crowd- puller of the year, the Family Funday on Sunday. Oh dear, what’s on at the pier?