Kempton to close in 2021

Well land in Newmarket is a lot cheaper than around London. They could make a fortune off the land Kempton is on if they can build on it all.

 

Already a course at Chelmsford, why build another and not just bank the cash? Give extra fixtures to Lingfield and Chelmsford.

 

The biggest racehorse centre in the world needs the best facilities and an aw track will give it that. Godolphin is has biggest sponsor and with aw racing a global concern I think it's a great idea but sadly at the expense of Chelmsford .

 

That is true, we will have to wait and see how Chelmsford is affected by this new track

 

I suspect Chelmsford's announcement that they intend to build a turf track is linked to the Kempton news.

 

With the announcement last year of the new gallops and now an AW track the Jockey Club is obviously putting all its eggs in one basket and the casualties are Kempton and possibly Chelmsford. I feel for Chelmsford as they have made a huge effort. I suspect we are heading for a floodlit track and Newmarket will try to corner the AW Festival market with a Breeders Cup style initiative. No doubt that they will position this fixture at a totally unrealistic time in the calendar as they usually do. Can they sell up Epsom too so we no longer have hard luck stories about horses not handling the track in the Derby!

 

I have sympathy with your argument but like Cheltenham flat ratings HQ deserves world class facilities and the jockey club should be applauded for pumping hard cash into the sport. I've felt for a while that Newmarket was being left behind over the last ten years or so, what with champions day being moved to ascot and they have worked hard with the future champions meetings and also the equine facilities in the area for breeding and sales and horse welfare facilities are leading the world . My vet rossdales are based there and their facilities are world class.

 

You can't compare Newmarket on the flat to Cheltemham on the jumps. The people of Newmarket may refer to it as HQ but its a million miles away from being that. Ascot is light years ahead of Newmarket. They don't come from around the globe to have runners at Newmarket!

Even York and Goodwood are pretty comparible with Newmarket in terms of quality fixtures

 

Couldn't agree more FP. Excellent vets. Is Andy Bathe still there?

 

Precisely. Do not know how they can call them All Weather after Southwell was flooded off a couple of years ago.

Why get the horsebox out to travel one of your lesser lights over to Essex when you can just walk them onto the Heath?

Been saying that for years but alas Epsom Downs is public ground. They could just level off the camber but that would do away with the bad luck stories...

Champions Day was done at Ascot because they thought it was easier for Londoners to get the train there and the place had just had a fortune spent on redevelopment. Just like the FA Cup semi-finals are now at Wembley to help pay the bills even though that ruins the mystique of having to get to the Final to play there for your club. Money talks.

It is not just the people of Newmarket that refer to it as HQ. Since the sport officially started there, it has an historical right to the moniker.

People who come from around the globe to run their horses at Ascot do so for the social prestige of the Royal Meeting – and half those horses, such as Southern Hemisphere sprinters, then go and run at Newmarket too.

 

I was always told Chester was the first place to hold race meetings, and is the oldest race track in the UK

 

Not sure Ron I can find out, they cover a large area nowadays . They saved my wife's horse life a couple of years ago and probably ten years earlier he would have been put down

 

mixed feelings about this one

Whilst it is a great loss to lose Kempton its only really big meeting was the King George (and I could never get there because there are never any trains running on Boxing Day!) I do think that it will be hard to replicate the race at Sandown though. The course presents a different challenge to Kempton.

I can see that it makes financial sense to sell to property developers but I do increasingly wonder about the concreting over of the south east.
Lets face it the transport and other infrastructure already can't cope, yet the solution seems to be to continue to build yet more homes?

 

The first recorded race was held at Chester in 1539 but the first race to be run under agreed "Rules" was run in Newmarket in 1666 (the Town Plate which is still run today). Newmarket is therefore the home of "organised" horseracing with the Jockey Club setting up in London in the 1750s to oversee the running of the sport, before moving to Newmarket.

 

So they raced with no rules for 100+ years then. Sounds like Wacky Races on horse back

 

Regardless of the horse racing consequences I'm not sure that the UK really need another 10000+ folk living inside the M25.

 

Sorry to go against everyone here but the Epsom Derby is the full test of a racehorse's conformation. If the horse isn't well balanced the chances are it won't handle the track. Trainers should know whether their horse is well balanced and, if not, run it somewhere else. An essential part of breeding top quality racehorses is to aim for excellent conformation. Hence why so many good Derby winners

Yep. Anything could enter

 

Arent Desert Orchid and Kauto Star buried at Kempton?