A Day At The Races

After last month’s cover feature which highlighted what is going on at Brighton Racecourse, the Sussex Business Times decided to have a day at out the races.

I hosted a table of 10 local business people in the fantastic Rrince Regent Suite for the first day of the MarathonBet Festival of Racing.
Each suite has its own dedicated bar area, along with your own tote in order to place your bets.

On arrival, we were welcomed and shown to our table where we ordered some drinks. We took our refreshments outside to view the course. The views are quite spectacular.

When watching the racing as you can see the sea and the downs. It makes you realise what an amazing place we are fortunate enough to live and work in. Brighton’s always got to be first past the post for scenery.

We then returned to our table, ready to order our lunch for 1pm and prepare for the first race at 2pm. There were some great choices on the menu, from starters with goats cheese and sundried tomato tart and parma ham as well as celebration of beetroot and soused mackerel.

For mains, you could choose from four dishes: sirloin of beef, supreme of guineafowl, roasted baby aubergine or fillet of cod loin. For the dessert, we had ample choice. You could pick from peach and Prosecco Semi Frado, summer berry pudding, chocolate mousse and, always a favourite of mine, a selection of English cheeses.

Our waitress was fantastic and attentive. Throughout the day she was on hand to take our drinks orders and tend to our requirements.

The food was excellent and my party and I, now feeling full, were ready to have a little flutter. The beauty with being situated in the suite is that you can simply go to the tote, place your bets and walk out onto the stand to watch your race.

Although, you also have the access to be able to go down to the bookies’ trackside and really get amongst everything to place your bets.

As mentioned, the views from the Prince Regent Suite are sublime. As it is situated on the third floor, it provides a truly great view of the Sussex coastline. We were fortunate as the weather was quite spectacular. with the sun shinning which of course added to the experience.

You can see why the racecourse is such an iconic venue and boasts a variety of different events, not just racing. It hosts business expos and concerts, to name a few, and provides an ideal venue to host seminars, awards ceremonies, staff training days and many other corporate events.

From a business perspective, whatever event you are looking to host, the Racecourse will have it covered. The racecourse has a fantastic array of conference, wedding and other facilities. It has spaces available for every conceivable event. Visiting the MarathonBet Festival of Racing certainly opened my eyes to what is really on offer here.

As well as the sheer amount of space, the racecourse has fabulous restaurants and bespoke catering options – coupled with a fully-fledged marketing team to make business events a real success. I could not fault the service we received on our day.

Our afternoon could not have gone better. Everyone on the table had the odd winner – which certainly helps and, as days out go, the races are such great fun.

Being the first day of the festival, the racecourse was packed – which all made for a great atmosphere. But, by being in the suite in between races, you can return to your table, relax, converse and pick your next winner.

There are still a few meetings left and, if you haven’t been for a while, I urge you to get along to a race day – whether you are looking to entertain clients or have a team building day with your staff this is the perfect solution.
Good food, good wine, great service and if you’re lucky you might come away with the odd winner or two.