Younger crowd on Sundays

While Sunday racing has failed to stimulate much activity in betting shops, it has had the desired effect in attracting a new, younger audience to the racecourse, a British Horseracing Board survey revealed yesterday.

The BHB research compared views of racegoers in 1994 with those attending Sunday meetings this year. Preliminary findings include: a third of all Sunday racegoers had never been to their chosen course before (compared with 22% in the 1994 survey); one in four Sunday racegoers took children aged under 16 (compared to 12%); almost 40% of Sunday racegoers are women (29%); 91% said racing was "good value," with 53% calling it "very good value" (36%); the average age of racegoers has fallen from 45 to 42, with a 17% increase in the number of under-35s.

The BHB's marketing director, Lee Richardson, said: "These results are encouraging. This is exactly what the promotional framework developed by the Sunday racing group was designed to achieve."