As you know my son and I love our Racing. We have shares in a lot of Race Horses, so we decided to take a trip to Newmarket and take a look around, spend time up on the gallops watching the horses exercise and generally enjoy a weekend away.
So we had booked a couple of rooms in a Best Western Hotel. That was our first mistake. We got there. Tried to book in. Very nice young man who hadn’t got a clue what he was doing, of why we were there. Now having had a small amount of luggage that might have been obvious you would have thought? For some reason our rooms were on different floors. Well Jacks was on a floor about mine and then quite a walk away. This Hotel was based on some sort of prison. Awful wasn’t the word for it. Stark, brick built. Grey in colour. So we go to our rooms. Fine, pretty basic. First think I notice is no toilet brush in my room. So ask me why that was important to me? Well if any of you know about suffering from this perishing condition called Diverticulitis – which I do – you will know while it’s vital – and I mean vital – to have a toilet brush in your room.
So I’ve missed out about our day before we got to the Hotel. Sorry. We stopped off at the Race Horse Museum and had a look around. Absolutely wonderful, and what made it even better was that there was seating for people who need to sit every now and then like me. All the different rooms were clearly marked. Obviously there was the shop you could buy from, but if I’m honest everything in the shop was educational or – what am I trying to say? Not a bit of junk in sight. Some gorgeous bags. Evening and day which I didn’t bother with and then of course who got back to the Hotel and found a walloping great hole in the bottom of her bag? We decided to have lunch in the Museum Restaurant. Marks out of 10 – 60 at least.
We decided to spend the evening in the Hotel Bar because it said you could get Bar Snacks and we knew we had to be up and out for 6am next morning to be on the gallops to watch the horses train. Bar snacks – as she falls down laughing!!!! The Bar Snacks were actually a bag of crisps, one flavour only – that was it. Never mind said Jack. I’ll pop to the Garage and get something. Sorry was the rebuke of the staff. We don’t allow you to bring food in Fine – there was a Fish and Chip shop over the road but we’d already had a huge lunch. So this is a Hotel, selling alcohol, from early evening onwards to people, but they don’t sell any kind of snack except bags of crisps, and one flavour only but won’t let you so much as bring in another bag of crisps. It has to be bought there.
I had a sleepless night due to the fact that they allow dogs. Now this might be fine but there was definitely a dog that barked all night long in a room close to me. I don’t dislike dogs but wouldn’t you have thought the owner would have take ‘Mutley’ out for a walk away from people trying to get some sleep.
Up early the next morning, and we were on the Gallops for 6.15am. It was beautiful. Really what we had come for. We knew the Trainers, we knew exactly who’s string was who’s and they waved to us as they went past. Thankfully the weather was good. Alright we needed a coat, but we could get out and watch. We were so close to the horses as well. They started at around 6am and the final string came through at sometime after 11am.
We had booked Afternoon Tea and in all fairness to the Hotel it was gorgeous. Just the normal Afternoon Tea but they had laid a special table for us in the Corner but it was lovely and they did make us feel very special.
In the evening, something amazing happened. A coach full of ‘kids’ arrived complete with three adults. Now all we could make out was that these so called kids were French and very well ‘controlled’ Now that’s a funny word to used about kids being controlled but they were. Two men and a women and these men were enough to scare me let alone them.
So my curiosity had got the better of me and I spoke to our Bar Lady and she said Oh they come every year. They come over from France – every one of them is a Trainee Jockey.
Trainee Jockey’s???? They didn’t look old enough. Are they just out of school!!! It was true though. All these kids were trainee Jockey’s. So me being me went to talk to the Lady in Charge and she was so lovely and thanked me coming over to ask after them and translated what I had said to them. So I never know, some day one of these kids might win the l’Arc or whatever it is.
So our next day was supposed to be a visit to Tattersalls to see a Horse Sale which had been on my Bucket List. What do they do? Cancel it because they didn’t have enough Horses to have a sale. Typical my luck! We were going to Ely but then didn’t much fancy that either, so just checked out which was a blessed relief if I’m honest, and then made our way home. We did say though that we would go back again and watch a Sale at Tattersalls but next time we would stay in Jockey Club Accomodation.
Would we stay in a Best Western Hotel again. Never as long as I live thanks very much.
Carol Yeomanson Books 