They call it Lovely Ludlow. A sharp right-handed circuit on ancient ground, an Edwardian grandstand, and racing close enough to feel — one of the last privately owned racecourses in Britain.
Ludlow is what racing used to feel like everywhere. The grandstand went up in 1904 and keeps its Edwardian ironwork — right down to the original porcelain and brass in the gentlemen's. The water jump sits in front of the stands, the parade ring fills with tweed, and the Clee Hills stand watch over the back straight.
Owned by the Ludlow Race Club and run by a team you'll meet on the gate, it stages sixteen National Hunt racedays from October to May — every one broadcast live on Racing TV.
The parade ring — one of only two in Britain walked anti-clockwise
The season's dates, priced up the way our bookmakers have done it for three hundred years — on the boards.
Every course has facts. Ludlow has form.
24 October 1980. Prince Charles rode his own horse Allibar into second place in an amateur riders' chase here — and Lady Diana Spencer, watching from the stands, was seen in public with him for the very first time.
Our feature race, the Forbra Gold Cup, honours Forbra — the 50/1 winner of the 1932 Grand National, owned by Ludlow town councillor and bookmaker William Parsonage. It's been run more than 65 times.
An entire golf course sits inside the track — laid out in 1889 and remodelled by five-time Open champion James Braid. As jockey Bryony Frost put it: "the real danger is being hit by a golf ball!"
A public road crosses the course three times. On racedays it's closed, and the crossings are laid with matting the field gallops straight over — a test of horsemanship you'll find nowhere else.
Ludlow and Goodwood are the only British courses where horses parade anti-clockwise. Stand at the rail and you'll see the field the opposite way to everywhere else in the country.
The Old Field is a Bronze Age barrow cemetery — burial mounds up to 4,000 years old still rise inside the circuit, protected as scheduled monuments. Legend says soldiers from Ludlow Castle matched their horses here in the 1300s.
The quickest times recorded at Ludlow over the past five seasons — free-draining gravel ground that lets good horses run their race.
| Horse | Time | Race | Distance | Set |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Force | 3m 49.3s | Chase | 1m 7f 212y | May 2019 |
| See The Sea | 3m 30.4s | Hurdle | 1m 7f 169y | Oct 2021 |
| Runswick Bay | 4m 47.1s | Chase | 2m 4f 11y | Oct 2021 |
| Une De La Seniere | 4m 53.3s | Hurdle | 2m 5f 55y | Oct 2021 |
| Shoal Bay | 5m 48.9s | Chase | 2m 7f 171y | Oct 2020 |
| Mont Segur | 3m 18.3s | Bumper | 1m 6f 7y | Dec 2019 |
Source: Ludlow Racecourse record-setters, five-season bests
From a private box above the course to a carvery lunch before the first — every package includes your badge, your table and the best seats in Shropshire.
Private boxes for 12–75 with a dedicated waiter, CCTV racing feed and balcony views — or a three-course lunch at a reserved restaurant table. Opened by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2003.
Boxes from £125pp · restaurant from £86.50pp
The Ludlow institution: a three-course carvery lunch above the parade ring, Members badge and racecard included, then out to the balcony as they go to post.
From £77.50pp inc. badge & racecard
Trackside dining for 300–500 on the big days — Tanners Race Day, Ladies Day — with its own bars, betting and dance-floor-sized celebrations.
Tanners lunch package £91.50ppThe largest function room in Shropshire, marquees with dance floors, suites for 500 delegates and a private, unhurried space for wakes and celebrations of life. Ask Diane — 01584 856 221.
"You're not just at the races. You're on the Old Field — where Shropshire has raced for three hundred years."
Ludlow Racecourse
Bromfield, Ludlow
Shropshire SY8 2BT
Off the A49, two miles north of town. Free parking — and a waymarked country walk from Castle Square if you fancy arriving on foot.
Free shuttle bus from Ludlow Station — three runs before the first race, returning half an hour after the last. Gates open two hours before the first.