Family Raceday – Visit The Races With Kids

Disclosure: This is a paid post for a Family raceday in collaboration with Great British Racing

Raceday With The Kids

Many people won’t have thought about taking their kids to the races. Betting on horses hardly seems like a fun family day out. But actually race courses across the UK have Family racedays especially for the kids. Under 18’s gain free entry with a paying adult and can enjoy lots of fun activities!

Of course there will still be the usual racing fun with plenty of races to bet on and the paddock enclosure to see the winners up close.

What To Expect

Each race course does things slightly differently. We have been to family racedays at Perth, Musselburgh and Ayr in the past. Each a little different. At Musselburgh and Ayr everything is on the same side of the course enclosure. However, as Perth race course is a smaller country race course there are two separate enclosures, one for the stands and paddock enclosure and another for the picnic enclosure (in the middle of the course) with kids activities.

This does mean at Perth you can’t leave until a race is over if you are in the picnic enclosure. If you have your car with you in the picnic enclosure at Perth you have to wait until all the races are over before you can leave. Most people who park in the picnic enclosure seemed to know this as they brought huge gazebo’s, chairs and cool boxes full of their picnic food and drinks. It also meant they had somewhere with shade or air conditioning when it was hot!

There are plenty of food vans on site on family racedays. At Perth race course there is also the cafe and fish and chip shop. We had a delicious lunch of fish and chip and burgers!

Plus ice cream afterward too. It was such a hot day that one ice cream van ran out of ice cream! Fortunately there was a second van and we could still enjoy a cool treat whilst we watched the last couple of races.

The gates normally open a couple of hours before the races start. This gives you plenty of time to have lunch and pick a favourite horse for the first race. Race cards are available at the gates and in various boxes around the site. Children are also given an activity book with puzzles, colouring and other activities. It’s good for a bit of downtime between races and bouncy castles!

Things To Do For Kids

On family racedays under 18’s go free with a paying adult. You can book your place at a local raceday by going to www.greatbritishracing.com/everyonesturf.

As it’s a family raceday there are a huge amount of kids activities available. There are always inflatables such as bouncy castles and slides, plus other activities like gladiator duelling. At other race courses we’ve been to they have had fairground rides like the tea cups, trampolines or the swing that goes round in circles!

You can also find stalls where kids can win a prize and face painting. At the bigger racedays there are often craft tents or even chill out tents for the kids. It’s fantastic to see what is available on family days!

The eldest quite enjoys kids activity books. So he had fun chilling out after jumping about a bouncy obstacle course, colouring in a jockey jersey design. There were other puzzles and colouring in the book too. This was given out to all children when they entered through the main gates. I like these thoughtful touches as it helps kids to enjoy the day more and even learn a bit more about horses and racing.

Our kids are 8 and 10 years old and enjoyed choosing which horse they think would win. Although we didn’t put any money on the horse, it was still fun for them. They loved cheering on the horses and watching them go over the jumps.

Perth Racecourse

Perth racecourse is located near Scone Palace in Perth. It’s easy to access using the bypass to go around the city centre and there is plenty of parking at the race course. If you wish to park in the picnic enclosure on family race days then you will need a separate parking ticket. As I mentioned above you cannot leave the picnic enclosure with a vehicle until all the races are over.

When choosing which ticket to buy you will have the choice of the picnic enclosure with all the kids activities, various food vans and several betting agents.

If you choose to buy a ticket for the grandstand enclosure there will be a few kids activities (small bouncy castle and bouncy hoppers) along with betting agents, stands, cafe’s and takeaway vans. Plus the paddock enclosure to see the winners of the race up close.

So it really depends if you are mostly looking for fun family things to do with the kids or if you would like to see more of the sporting side. We had tickets for both sides of the course and I do think if you have smaller kids it would be easier to stay on the grandstand side which is quieter and they can play on the smaller bouncy castle and hoppers happily.

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