Would you pay £9 for ‘prison food’? Punters expose the really bad – and really good – racecourse grub

WOULD you pay £9 for a solitary sausage, handful of chips and dollop of watery ketchup?

What about £17.50 for a cheese and salad ‘platter’ thrown together in a plastic box?

The cost and standard of grub served at sporting events has long been a sore point with punters.

But a new Twitter page is exposing the very worst – and best – on offer at racecourses in the UK.

Account @RacingGrub has quickly gained a following for revealing the quality of food punters can expect.

The post which has so far caused the most outrage is the £9 sausage and chips at Lingfield racecourse in Surrey.

One labelled it ‘prison food’ while another branded the serving ‘utterly disgusting’.

A local punter said he refuses to go to the track anymore with prices ‘a joke’ – while another said the food resembled ‘leftovers’.

The price of a pint at March’s Cheltenham Festival stunned punters as they were forced to shell out £7 for a Guinness.

A pint of Carling was £6.90 while a double gin and tonic was a whopping £14.

The food fetched a pretty penny as well, with a photo of a cheese and salad platter costing £17.50.

With that in mind, the £4 one person paid for a pulled pork bap at Hexham racecourse in Northumberland represented decent value.

But one look at it – complete with mayo in the middle – might convince you to bring your own packed lunch.

Of course, it’s not all bad.

A colourful chicken katsu curry at Epsom looked tasty at £10.50.

While a whopping ‘double classic’ cheeseburger laden with fried onions for £8.80 at Perth appeared a bargain.

And the same price for a big fish and chips – about what you’d expect to pay in your local chippy – at the same course looked decent bang for your buck.

As did the giant fish and chips for £10.50 at Newbury.

It’s not until you get to France, though, that you see how good it could be.

Steak and fried at Cagnes-sur-Mer for £4.29? Yes, please.

Pizza that looks fresh out of the finest wood oven for under a tenner in Auteuil? Go on then.

Of course, it’s worth remembering how much caterers are charged by racecourses to pitch there.

But with dwindling crowd numbers amid the cost of living crisis, let’s hope the food on offer is a winner, even if your bets aren’t.

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