Stand on the platform at Loughborough station this October and there is an unusually good choice for anyone who fancies an afternoon at the races.
Head south and Leicester Racecourse is waiting at Oadby.
Head north and Nottingham races at Colwick Park beside the River Trent.
Both are staging Flat racing throughout October and, rather neatly, twice this month Leicester races on a Tuesday before Nottingham follows the very next day.
For experienced racegoers that means six meetings within easy reach of Loughborough.
For anyone who has never been racing, it is also a good month to discover two courses with very different characters.
Six October meetings
Leicester Racecourse stages three afternoons of Flat racing:
Tuesday 6th October
Tuesday 13th October
Monday 26th October
Nottingham's October programme includes:
Wednesday 7th October, Afternoon Racing
Wednesday 14th October, Construction Day
Wednesday 28th October, Community Raceday
That creates two consecutive racing days early in the month, with Leicester on Tuesday 6th October followed by Nottingham on Wednesday 7th October, then the same pattern again on Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th October.
Nottingham's Flat season continues until Wednesday 4th November.
Leicester's final Flat meeting is on Monday 26th October before the course changes codes, with its first jumps meeting scheduled for Tuesday 17th November.
Two courses heading in opposite directions
The differences begin as soon as the horses leave the stalls.
Leicester is a right-handed course.
Nottingham is left-handed.
Some horses cope perfectly well with either direction. Others clearly prefer racing one way around, so previous form at a similar course can be worth noticing.
Leicester also asks a particular question at the end of a race.
Its long straight initially runs downhill before beginning to climb, with much of the final three furlongs uphill.
A horse that has raced too freely early on can find those closing stages surprisingly unforgiving.
Nottingham has a different feel.
The Colwick Park course has two tracks, with an inner circuit traditionally used during spring and autumn and a larger outer course used through the summer.
Its bends and relatively gentle gradients generally make it a fair track, although positioning around the home turn can still matter.
Watching the same type of horse tackle both courses can therefore be interesting. Leicester can expose a horse that has used too much energy before the finish, while Nottingham often places more emphasis on balance and having enough speed left when the race develops.
Nottingham saves one of its best races for October
The final Nottingham meeting of the month has something extra.
Community Raceday on Wednesday 28th October includes the Robin Hood Stakes, a Listed race over one mile and 75 yards for horses aged three and older.
The race was previously known as the Ben Marshall Stakes and was staged for many years at Newmarket before moving to Nottingham in 2022.
It adopted the Robin Hood Stakes name in 2024.
The first two scheduled Nottingham runnings were both lost to waterlogging, but Sparks Fly won the race in 2024 before Ice Max took it in 2025.
This year's race carries Β£60,000 in prize money and gives Nottingham one of its strongest contests towards the end of the Flat season.
The meeting also has a community angle, with Nottingham Racecourse working with Autism in Racing to host families in its sensory room.
Earlier in the month, Construction Day on Wednesday 14th October includes another notable race.
The Colwick Cup, Nottingham's leading long-distance handicap, has moved from its previous summer position to October, giving staying horses a two-mile test as the Flat season begins to wind down.
A racing history shared between the two cities
Leicester and Nottingham have something else in common.
Neither racecourse started where it is today.
Racing in Leicester can be traced back centuries, with meetings held at several locations before the racecourse moved to its present Oadby home.
The first meeting there took place on 24th July 1883.
Nottingham had spent around two centuries racing on the Forest, north of the city centre, before moving to Colwick Park in 1892.
One jockey provides an intriguing connection between the two.
Gordon Richards rode his first career winner at Leicester on 31st March 1921.
He was still a teenage apprentice when Gay Lord gave him that breakthrough.
Richards went on to dominate British Flat racing, becoming champion jockey 26 times and riding 4,870 winners.
Twelve years after that first Leicester victory, Nottingham became part of another extraordinary Richards statistic.
In October 1933 he rode the first of 12 consecutive winners, with the remaining victories coming over the following two days at Chepstow.
It stood as a world record.
The two racecourses therefore sit at opposite ends of an important early chapter in the career of one of British racing's greatest jockeys.
Famous names before they were famous
Leicester has another extraordinary name in its history.
Golden Miller recorded his first victory there in 1931.
The horse would go on to win five consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups between 1932 and 1936 and remains the only horse to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National in the same year, doing so in 1934.
Nottingham has its own place in National Hunt history despite no longer staging jump racing.
In 1971, Stan Mellor rode his 1,000th winner there, becoming the first National Hunt jockey to reach the landmark.
Jump racing continued at Nottingham until 1996 before the course became exclusively Flat.
Today those stories are part of the history, but October is very much about the closing weeks of the Flat season.
An easy first afternoon at the races
Midweek racing at either course can be a good introduction for someone who has never been before.
The atmosphere tends to be more relaxed than at the major festival meetings, and there is time to explore the racecourse rather than rushing from one race to another.
A good place to start is the parade ring.
Before each race the horses walk around with their handlers before the jockeys mount and head onto the track.
You do not need years of racing knowledge to find it interesting. Watch how differently the horses behave, see which look relaxed and then follow them out onto the course.
There is no requirement to bet.
If you do, decide what you are comfortable spending beforehand and treat it as part of the day's entertainment rather than something that needs to happen on every race.
Nottingham is currently offering advance admission to its weekday October meetings from Β£9, with under-18s admitted free.
And for October racing in the East Midlands, the most useful fashion advice is considerably simpler than a dress code: take a decent coat.
Getting there from Loughborough
Both courses are relatively straightforward journeys from Loughborough.
For Leicester, trains run directly south into Leicester city centre. From the station, the racecourse is around two miles away at Oadby, along the A6.
By car, it sits on the southern side of Leicester and can be reached from the M1 via the city's outer ring road.
For Nottingham, take a direct train north to Nottingham.
Colwick Park is roughly two miles from Nottingham station, with taxis available outside. Netherfield is the closest railway station to the racecourse itself.
Drivers can follow signs towards Nottingham Racecourse and Colwick Park once approaching the city.
The short journeys are what make the October calendar particularly appealing from Loughborough.
You could watch racing at Leicester on Tuesday and find yourself at a completely different racecourse less than 24 hours later.
Back home in Loughborough
There is plenty locally to combine with a day at the races too.
Queen's Park is home to one of Loughborough's most recognisable landmarks, the Carillon Tower.
The First World War memorial was officially unveiled on 22nd July 1923 and contains 47 bells, all made at John Taylor & Co's Loughborough bell foundry.
Edward Elgar composed music for its opening, while the tower today also houses the War Memorial Museum.
Charnwood Museum sits nearby and tells more of the area's local and natural history.
Then there is Loughborough's other railway.
The Great Central Railway operates heritage trains from Loughborough Central, preserving part of what was once one of Britain's great main lines.
And beyond the town, Charnwood Forest and Beacon Hill offer a completely different way to spend an autumn afternoon.
But for racing fans, October presents a particularly simple choice.
Turn south for Leicester.
Turn north for Nottingham.
Or, twice this month, do both.
Leicester races on 6th, 13th and 26th October, while Nottingham races on 7th, 14th and 28th October.
Check the respective racecourse websites before travelling for confirmed race times, tickets and the latest ground conditions, particularly if there has been significant autumn rain.