Introduction

In this chapter I focus upon the racecourse, because it is here that the supply side of racing, including members of the class described in the preceding chapter, encounter racing's consumers. I have spent dozens of days at racecourses during the past four years, and travelled all over Britain, from Mussleburgh to Brighton. I have been racing in a number of different roles, including those of lad, trainer's assistant and owner. As a spectator I have been racing with gamblers, touts, groups of friends and virtual strangers. On all these occasions I spoke with as many people as possible, recording as much information as I could in notebooks, and on an assortment of betting stubs, racecards and cigarette packets.

It is not surprising that some of the most famous, successful and well-connected trainers dislike going racing. It is at the racecourse that the client base that sustains the industry is to be found: the spectators and, in particular, the punters. The central paradox of horseracing is that it is a sport intimately associated with, and some would say driven by, the betting activities of the lower classes whilst many of its professionals (excluding most jockeys) are members of the upper class. The obfuscation of this uneasy symbiosis is achieved through the conventions that occur on the course.