Can you name the UK and Irish horse racing courses?

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Race Courses (UK & Ireland) Quiz

by SporcleAdmin

Created Mar 17, 2009 in Sports
Featured Mar 17, 2009
Game Plays 13,390

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	Cuthbert_Twilley:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 17:05 GMT		-3 points
	I only got Ascot. Why is Sporcle so My Fair Lady-centric!

	theGrit:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 17:15 GMT		-2 points
	Just curious: has there ever been an American horse tracks quiz? If not, I'm requesting one. :) If so, where is it?

	davidr:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 17:33 GMT		3 points
	For English place-name afficionados, Towcester is pronounced "toaster".

	klogg:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 17:37 GMT		4 points
	@theGrit: could only find these: http://www.sporcle.com/games/triplecrown.php http://www.sporcle.com/games/horseracing.php

	Cuthbert_Twilley:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 18:03 GMT		1 point
	@davidr: I've always been fascinated by that particular English pronunciation. What mad evolution of language led to treating names with "cester" in them as if the spelling were completely different? Sometimes I think they should change the town in Massachusetts to Wooster just to ruffle feathers across the pond.

	davidr:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 18:47 GMT		1 point
	@Cuthbert T.: I don't know but it was probably laziness. It could also have something to do with the Normans taking over and starting to pronounce things as if they were words in Norman French but without changing the spelling. You could split Towcester as Towce-ster, rather than Tow-ces-ter and then the rather awkward `toes-ster' would quickly turn into `toaster'. Likewise, Leicester —> Leice-ster —> less-ster —> lester and Worcester —> Worce-ster —> wurs-ster —> wuster. Or maybe the `ce' just got dropped from the middle: `Towster', `Leister' and `Worster' look much closer to the pronunciations.

	davebesag:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 19:38 GMT		1 point
	I've heard former jockey John Francome pronounce it 'Tauster' on TV. 'Toaster' is the usual way.

	Cuthbert_Twilley:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 19:45 GMT		2 points
	@davidr: interesting theory. The Tow-ces-ter to Towce-ster idea makes a lot of sense. There's a town in Virginia spelled Staunton but pronounced Stan-ton. Why? There's an apocryphal story about a cartographer's error, but my guess is the people there think Staunton sounds too British!

	davidr:	Mar 17th, 2009 at 23:55 GMT		4 points
	@Cuthbert T.: Yes, well, it's spelt `Staunton' but it's pronounced `Throatwobbler Mangrove.'

	davebesag:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 00:07 GMT		2 points
	You're a very silly man ;-)

	darth_shrimper:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 14:40 GMT		1 point
	Cracking. Been waiting for this one.

	Catherine_F:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 15:17 GMT		2 points
	Davidr, do you (or anyone else) have any idea why Cholmondeley is pronounced Chumley? I mean that one seems to really be taking the piss. Anyway, I got all 5 racecourses I live near or have lived near, plus the one that's a card game.

	chrispaz:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 16:46 GMT		2 points
	@Catherine F, I agree. There's a posh name called Featherstone**** (pronounced Fanshaw), which is the most bizarre one i've ever heard. I managed to labour to 10 on this quiz. Not good.

	chrispaz:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 16:48 GMT		2 points
	Oops, I forgot about the semi-rude word in that name (wh0re). Sorry Sporcle, no offence intended.

	darth_shrimper:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 17:24 GMT		2 points
	I think it's spelt Featherstonehaugh. But it's still daft.

	asta:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 17:31 GMT		1 point
	i only got 4, 3 cos they are the famous ones and the 4th cos thats where I'm from and this is probably the only quiz on here thats ever gonna feature it

	Dubliner :	Mar 18th, 2009 at 17:53 GMT		0 points
	'Sometimes I think they should change the town in Massachusetts to Wooster just to ruffle feathers across the pond' Jeeves would not approve ;) I got 19 should have had more . 28 of the 87 are in Ireland and I got only 3 of them and I'm from Dublin :( Got the usuals Ascot, Epsom , Sandown , Aintree , Cheltenham -but how could I forget Pontefract or Redcar or Market Rasen . Great quiz -and will have another go later The so called 'posh ' name above Featherstonehaugh (Fanshaw) English is not a language that is pronounced as it's spelt . This is due to superimposing fancy norman french on top of basic anglo saxon and having the Danelaw divvying up the country . If the Danes had'nt bothered and Charlemagne passed on his Holy Roman Empire to one son instead of dividing it in three then the Norman's ancestors the 'vikings ' would have never been able to get a foothold in Normandy and English today would sound like a cross between disease of the throat Dutch and West Friesian :).Probably would have been easier to spell ;)

	davidr:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 20:44 GMT		1 point
	@Catherine F.: Laziness again? It's just the omission of the middle syllable (Cholm'ley) and a slight change to the first vowel. Likewise, Featherstonehaugh — Fe'nehaugh, though I've no idea where the `s' should come from.

	FozzieBear:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 22:53 GMT		1 point
	28 of he 87 maybe from Ireland, yet Irish racecourses occupy the bottom 20 least popular answers. Any reason for that? Even Fairyhouse, where the Irish Grand National is run doesn't feature that highly either.

	Peter:	Mar 18th, 2009 at 23:48 GMT		1 point
	@ davidr you are right it is to make the word easier to pronounce - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellision and as an everyday example take chocolate the middle syllable is generally elided to give something sounding more like choclate or even wednesday!

	davidr:	Mar 19th, 2009 at 08:43 GMT		0 points
	@Peter: I never pronounce `chocolate' to sound anything like `Wednesday'! wink

	Dubliner :	Mar 19th, 2009 at 21:32 GMT		0 points
	Got 38 second go -improving Fozzie - simple answer Ireland 6 million Britain 60 million . Some of the last 20 would have meets just a couple of times a year . I was surprised Cork rated higher than the Curragh ? I think folks were guessing via geographic knowledge ;) Thats how I got Nottingham . The better and most frequented courses are in the south of England and eastern Ireland . Scotland and Wales too many mountains ;)

	davebesag:	Mar 20th, 2009 at 12:25 GMT		2 points
	Cartmel is the second lowest guessed outside Ireland and that has only a couple of meetings a year. I'm not surprised Laytown is low as they only meet once a year on the beach (seriously!). http://www.napit.co.uk/viewus/infobank/rcinformation/irishrcourses/laytown.php

	davebesag:	Mar 22nd, 2009 at 14:35 GMT		1 point
	On checking my Racing Post diary I'm wrong about how few meetings Cartmel has. Those with below 10 are Aintree with 9 (its profile is due to the Grand National), Cartmel with 7, Ffos Las with 8 (it's hasn't opened yet so doesn't appear on the quiz - I did suggest it as a bonus answer), Ballinrobe with 9, Bellewstown with 5, Kilbeggan with 8, Laytown with 1, Roscommon with 9, Sligo with 9.

	Veni_Vidi_Vidic:	May 17th, 2009 at 06:58 GMT		-2 points
	Perhaps Americans should learn how to pronounce 'Pittsburgh' instead of pronouncing it 'Peetsbeerrg".

	LUFCMadferret:	Nov 11th, 2009 at 23:44 GMT		4 points
	Ffos Las can now be added, Great Leighs looks to have bitten the dust now!

	moviegoer74:	Feb 23rd, 2010 at 15:38 GMT		2 points
	Good quiz. Wish there were more horse-racing quizzes on sporcle. Here's one if you're interested: http://www.sporcle.com/games/moviegoer74/belmontstakeswinners

	badasshandle:	Aug 8th, 2010 at 11:57 GMT		0 points
	@ Veni_Vidi_Vidic: First of all, we don't say "Peetsbeerg". Second of all, it's the name of a city in the United States of America, so we'll pronounce it however the hell we want to pronounce it. If we want to pronounce as "Pites burg" we can and we will. Would you want us telling you how to pronounce Birmingham (West Midlands, England), Leicestershire or Wocestershire? That's what I thought. So don't be a douche. Thank you.

	Dysart:	Aug 22nd, 2010 at 20:16 GMT		1 point
	What happened to Tralee?

	macker51:	Nov 30th, 2010 at 09:00 GMT		1 point
	53/86 :)

	Ireland:	Dec 16th, 2010 at 01:37 GMT		1 point
	Tralee has close down, no more racing there. Site has been sold to developers.

	comeonshaymen:	May 15th, 2011 at 20:22 GMT		1 point
	79 out of 86. I watch way too much racing

	comeonshaymen:	May 15th, 2011 at 20:25 GMT		1 point
	@Veni-Vidi-Vidic. It it was in England it'd probs be pornounce Pittsborough @Badasshandle. Spell Worcestershire correctly

	justin26uk:	Jan 19th, 2012 at 07:58 GMT		0 points
	guy i work with got 86/86. And he doesn't watch horseracing. These are all on roadmaps, so it works as a geography question.