About The Paddock

Who makes it

One person, a racing fan in the United States, who got tired of hunting through five sites to find a post time and a stream. The Paddock is built and paid for out of pocket, with reader donations covering the data feed and hosting.

The rules it keeps

• Every page is free. No accounts, no paywall, no supporter-only cards.
• No adverts and no bookmaker links. The site tells you what’s running and where to watch it; it doesn’t tell you what to bet.
• Access labels say what a service really costs: free, free with an account, or a subscription. Nothing is called free that isn’t.
• Times are always shown in your own time zone, with the track’s alongside.

Where the data comes from

Racecards, entries and records

The Racing API, a licensed feed covering Britain, Ireland, France and Hong Kong, with North America to follow. Cards are refreshed every few minutes on race days.

Course maps

Drawn to scale from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with a few courses traced from the track’s own published plan where the map has no data.

Course histories and portraits

The opening of each course’s Wikipedia article, quoted as written and credited on the page (CC BY-SA), and photographs from Wikimedia Commons with their licences shown.

Big-race dates and facts

Dates come from each race’s organiser once published, and from the race’s usual pattern until then (marked “expected”). First runnings, records and recent winners are checked against a cited source, named on each page.

Where to watch

Maintained by hand from the broadcasters’ own announcements, per viewer region. Rights move every season; the report form is the fastest way to tell us one has.

Contact

Something wrong, missing or unclear? Report it; it goes straight to the person who can fix it, and a reply comes back if you leave an address. New to racing? The guide starts from the beginning.