Kempton park racecourse

Course: Kempton Racecourse - Jump Season Opener

🎫 Ticket & value: Grandstand £25

👀 Track view: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍔 Food: ⭐️

🍺 Guinness: ⭐️⭐️

⭕️ Parade Ring: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🏇 Runners and riders: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎉 Atmosphere: ⭐️

⭐️ Overall Experience: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

👍🏻 Best for: Runners and riders 🏇

We visited Kempton Park Racecourse on the opening day of the jumps season, and we were treated to some excellent racing across the day. At £25 a ticket, you got excellent access around the track and free parking meant it was encouraged to drive to the course instead of opting for public transport options. Having said that if you wanted to have a few Sunday Guinness then the transport links from London are very accessible and therefore if you live anywhere not to distant on the train line you can visit here easily.

Kempton boasts a good track view from both the stands and by the rail. From the stands, you get a decent view across the majority of the racecourse except for a small section in the distance that is blocked by a tree line which you cant see the horses behind. Fantastically, you get a brilliant view of the home straight from the stands and track side, as the horses head towards the winning post. It’s a right handed track.

Unfortunately, despite being a multi-purpose track the food options for the season opener didn’t match the racing on hand. The options were fairly limited trackside, with only two different stalls in the concourse available to choose from. A pizza counter alongside a hot food buffet style where the food is plated up in front of you which served up loaded fries, Mac and cheese, garlic bread, ceasar salad, fish n chips and battered sausages. We had the fish and chips which at £12 presented good value, however the taste let the course down with soft batter, fish only luke-warm and the chips being pretty standard. The pizzas were reasonably priced at £11-£12, so next time we’d probably give them a go instead of the fish and chips option. There was also the option of a 3 course roast dinner lunch up in the panoramic restaurant for £94 so if this did suit your budget then would be worth trying as the views from the restaurant are fantastic and you can place all your bets up there as well. Overall you would like to see some slightly more varied options and some higher quality on show.

As for the Guinness, at £7.80 a pint we’d hope to see something that reflects a pint of high quality. However…this wasn’t the case with the staff pouring pints incorrectly without any time to rest and settle, bearing that in mind it wasn’t actually the worst looking pint visually. Despite this, the Guinness had a decent head on it and was fairly creamy but not a particularly great tasting pint at all. This is right up with the most expensive Guinness we have come across over the race tracks we have reviewed so far so you should hope to expect a higher quality.

The parade ring at Kempton is excellent, large in size and providing spectators a wonderful opportunity to see the horses and jockeys pre and post race. 5 steps tiered down to the rail which has stalls lined up alongside it if you want to sit down. You can get pretty close to the horses and get a good close view of trainers and owners having a chat with the jockeys before the race. The weighing room isn’t right next to the parade ring so the jockeys walk down the shoot from it to get ready to be jocked up before then going back that way on board before heading out onto the track itself via the front left area of the circuit. You can follow the horses most of the way down the chute and they come back that way after the race. The ability to get closer to jockeys and horses is probably better viewed from the shoot rather than the parade ring itself.

The runners and riders on show at Kempton that Sunday were high in quality, with top jockeys Cobden, Skelton, Twiston-Davies and De Boinville all on show for the opening fixture. This was matched by the trainers themselves in attendance including Nicholls, Henderson and Skelton watching some of their rising stars take to the racecourse for the first time in the season. Nicholls and Henderson could be seen chatting in the parade ring together having some pre race banter.

With the racing on offer being of a high standard and many top jockeys and trainers in attendance for the opening jumps fixture, you’d have hoped for a bright, lovely atmosphere around the racecourse. Unfortunately, the racegoers on the day failed to provide this with betting rings fairly quiet and no real buzz around the bars and food stalls throughout the day. A muted response was heard from the crowd whenever the horses came up the home straight, galloping towards the winning post.

Overall, Kempton provides racegoers an affordable and great opportunity to watch some top jockeys and trainers competing against each other early on in the jumps season. The racecourse boasts a great track view, alongside an excellent parade ring that gives a fantastic view of the horses pre-race, during and post race as well.