As I have mentioned a few times on this blog, March and April are known as ‘birthday season‘ in our family. It’s a hell of a ride as we see out not only Mother’s Day and Easter but also, 7 birthdays. This year we had our last two birthdays literally on Easter. It was my mum’s birthday on Thursday, Good Friday, my niece’s birthday Saturday and then Easter Sunday.

We were ready for it to be over quickly, I have to admit. So when I was invited to the Easter Family Fun Day at Haydock Racecourse on my niece’s 6th birthday (and the last one in birthday season) I thought it would be the perfect way to celebrate in style and give her the best birthday ever! (I am aware we could peak at 6 years old!).

I have never been to Haydock Racecourse before. I have been to Aintree a couple of times but not Haydock. I must admit to having a fondness for a day at the races but taking the kids with us would be a new experience.

Easter Family Fun Day at Haydock Racecourse.

Haydock Racecourse held a Greatest Showman themed family fun day on Saturday 20th April this year to coincide with the Easter weekend, and luckily for us, one of the most gloriously sunny bank holiday weekends we have had for a while.

Promising a day of fun and racing, the course was home to a variety of rides, live circus shows and performers, a circus workshop and craft table along with face painting and an inflatable obstacle course. There was definitely plenty for the kids to get involved in aside from watching the races.

Fun in the Sun at The Family Fun Day at Haydock Racecourse.

Organising 13 people for a day of fun was never going be an easy feat. And I have to admit at first it was looking a little bit like a disaster for us. The sun was shining and by the time we arrived the racecourse was already full and a little bit crowded. So we watched the first race – I backed the last place runner in all races by the way, before heading inside for some food and refreshments.

Heading up to Coole’s Kitchen in the Centenary Stand we were pleased to find it a lot less busy and nice and relaxing. That was until we tried to order our meals, with fussy kids and hungry gown ups, what could go wrong?

To be honest, nothing did go wrong. The staff were brilliant with us as we tried not to hold everyone up as we placed our orders. The food is served from the counter made sure we all got to eat pretty quickly without any long wait times for it to be prepared. It didn’t take long for the food to be demolished and everyone (except Olivia) was left full and happy. The younger kids were delighted that they could drink coke from the machine for the day. Something they are never normally allowed!

We ordered;

• Cheeseburgers with crispy potatoes
• Ham and Cheese Feast Sandwich
• Sweet and Sour noodles
• Pulled Pork and crispy potatoes
• Pie and Mushy Peas

We washed the meals down with some soft drinks. The only issues were with one of my niece’s who decided she didn’t like her meal and swapped with her mum and Olivia who didn’t like the dressing on her sandwich. The meals were all really nice and there were no complaints aside from personal taste preferences at all.

Coole’s Kitchen was perfect for us. Located on the first floor in the Centenary Stand, we had easy indoor access to a bookmaker, should we want to put a bet on and a bar area opening out to the stands to watch the racing. We were located away from the family activities but this meant we were able to come back and get out of the sun with the kids should we need to. (Tickets for the county stand are from £25)

Enjoying the Activities at the Easter Family Fun Day at Haydock Racecourse.

Now we were all fed and watered, it was time to head over to where all the action was happening. I don’t mean the racecourse edge either as we were all still failing to back any winners. Located in the Be Friendly enclosure, was a whole selection of rides and activities for the kids along with regular circus shows throughout the afternoon. Boy, was it busy here!

As expected, many families had taken advantage of the kids go free offer to enjoy the beautiful weather at Haydock Racecourse. The kids quickly joined the queues only for us to find out you needed to purchase tickets first and the booth was now shut due to the number of people in attendance. Luckily fellow visitors took pity on our children, especially the one wearing the big number 6 badge and kindly shared their leftover tickets with them. This meant the younger two could go on the carousel and the three of the older girls got to ride the Ferris Wheel!

We also managed to catch a couple of the Greatest Show themed circus shows and have a little play with the free games on offer too.

There were also long queues for food and drinks too, we waited over 30 mins in the line for the ice cream van. Again not unexpected but it meant you weren’t really free to experience everything else as much as we wanted to!

Our Thoughts on the Easter Family Fun Day at Haydock Racecourse.

Honestly, every single one of us loved it! We really did have the best day. Yes, it was really hot and ridiculously busy but that didn’t put a dampener on our day at all. Sure, we would have loved to have tried out everything on offer but it wasn’t possible this time.

It was not only the kids first time at the races but my mums too and she had a great time despite saying initially it wasn’t for her! It is definitely something fun and different to do for a family day out and something we will definitely do again.

I even managed to pick a winner on the last race too! My horse racing tips for picking winners? Go with your heart and have fun! It’s not about the betting and gambling it’s about the fun. Winning is only a bonus!

Would We Go Back Again?

Absolutely. Knowing what we know now, we would definitely visit a family fun day at Haydock Racecourse again and make sure to join all of the queues early to get to try everything on offer. Haydock Racecourse has another family fun day on the 8th August 2019. If you fancy heading along here are some of our tips to get the most out of your day.

• Get your ride tickets early should this be something you are looking at doing.
• Plan ahead to minimise your time waiting in queues. If it is another busy event you can be looking at wait times of around an hour.
• Take a picnic with you and/or a cool box (food and drink are allowed in the Be Friendly enclosure – alcohol is not permitted). This means you don’t have to queue for food.
• If you are in a big group like we were, delegate waiting times if you can. We all know kids hate to wait in line so take it in turns if there are long wait times for the various activities.
• Consider purchasing tickets for the County Enclosure. This will give you somewhere to head to should the crowds be too much for you or your kids or the weather requires you to take time out from the heat or shelter from the rain!

If you are planning on visiting Haydock Racecourse, kids go free to all race days except for music nights.

*Disclaimer: We were provided with tickets to this event and our meals for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, opinions, fun, sunburn and picking losing hoses are our own based upon our day*