Kempton Park to be bulldozed under Jockey Club plans

klairondavis

http://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/news/proposed-half-a-billion-pound-investment-in-british-racing

The King George to move to Sandown Park permanently from 2021 - previously run there in 1995 (One Man) and 2005 (Kicking King).

Newmarket set to get a new AW track.

uxiant

Kempton is such a unique test that made the King George such a special race. Moving the King George to Sandown changes the complexion of the the race completely as it will likely be run on desperate ground on a much stiffer track.

Seeing 3 mile chasers going full tilt around Kempton on Stephen's Day is a sight to behold while elsewhere horses are crawling to the finish on desperate ground. Terrible news.

Hulk Hands

The nostalgia monkeys are having a field day on twitter etc, so in the interest of balance...a poor facilities racecourse notable for one or two days a year. The all weather meetings are a desolte experience by all accounts. Sandown is a 15 minute drive away, is a better course, better facilities and has no flagship 3m chase or 2m hurdle. It will turn the King George into something different and while thats lamentable, perhaps the new experience will be better in some ways. However that single race seems to be the sole reason people are upset. Im sure the jockey club and seen the hundred million to invest elsewhere as a decent trade off

famagusta

such a pity, i was lucky enough to be there for a couple of king georges. great viewing track. it will be a big loss.

this kind of thing seems to happen a bit in england with horse and dog tracks, very sad.

hopefully it wont be happening here anytime soon.

Custom Cut

There's plenty of other courses in the area so I can see the sense from that point of view. Living near Leopardstown I always find it amazing how racecourses are allowed to take up such a massive amount of space in such a built up area. If they would move the King George to Ascot instead of Sandown I'd be fine with the move. I love Sandown but it completely changes the King George as a race. Ascot at least has some similarities with Kempton. Tearing up the all weather I don't care about, they'll just put the fixtures somewhere else and no one will be able to tell the difference.

lemush

Hulk Hands wrote: »

The nostalgia monkeys are having a field day on twitter etc, so in the interest of balance...a poor facilities racecourse notable for one or two days a year. The all weather meetings are a desolte experience by all accounts. Sandown is a 15 minute drive away, is a better course, better facilities and has no flagship 3m chase or 2m hurdle. It will turn the King George into something different and while thats lamentable, perhaps the new experience will be better in some ways. However that single race seems to be the sole reason people are upset. Im sure the jockey club and seen the hundred million to invest elsewhere as a decent trade off

Disagree totally, think it's a great racecourse.

ArmaniJeanss

famagusta wrote: »

hopefully it wont be happening here anytime soon.

That ship sailed with the Phoenix Park Racecourse, and more recently Tralee.

longshotvalue

AS great as the King George is around Kempton, i think it will be a much better race around Sandown and along with the Betfair chase give 3 completely different tests for the top 3 miles chasers around.

I for one would love to see top class 3 milers tacking the railway fences etc.

It could be said that the Betfair chase and the king george at kempton were a bit too similar and suited a different horse than the Gold Cup. Not that it matters really.

Hulk Hands

lemush wrote: »

Disagree totally, think it's a great racecourse.

Thats me convinced! It struggles to hold the 20 odd thousand it gets for its one big day and was badly in need of a refurbishment if it was to continue as a track. Reminded me of the Curragh

Custom Cut

aidankkk wrote: »

AS great as the King George is around Kempton, i think it will be a much better race around Sandown and along with the Betfair chase give 3 completely different tests for the top 3 miles chasers around.

I for one would love to see top class 3 milers tacking the railway fences etc.

It could be said that the Betfair chase and the king george at kempton were a bit too similar and suited a different horse than the Gold Cup. Not that it matters really.

There's one huge difference between Haydock and Kempton and that's the ground. Haydock is soft or heavy all the way through the winter, Kempton is extremely good at resisting bad weather and producing good to soft or even good ground. Sandown on the other hand is another track that produces terrible ground, many people feel there's already too much racing at the track and asking it to handle more might not work. As far as the railway fences go I think they're extremely overrated, the vast majority of horses school over fences that are very close together at home anyway and they can handle it.

lemush

Custom Cut wrote: »

There's one huge difference between Haydock and Kempton and that's the ground. Haydock is soft or heavy all the way through the winter, Kempton is extremely good at resisting bad weather and producing good to soft or even good ground. Sandown on the other hand is another track that produces terrible ground, many people feel there's already too much racing at the track and asking it to handle more might not work. As far as the railway fences go I think they're extremely overrated, the vast majority of horses school over fences that are very close together at home anyway and they can handle it.

Agree 100%

diomed

Will Epsom be the only racecourse inside the M25 when Kempton closes?
Epsom is next. They can run the Derby at Lingfield as it is a similar track.

BumperD

Bulldozing Kempton to build another unwanted all weather track and trouser a one off 100 million is a poor plan. Tear up a well located track, 150 years of tradition to make way for 3,000 houses? Surely the jockey club can come up with a business plan that doesn't involve flattening a track that is really accessible to one of the biggest urban centers in the world right on its doorstep that it should be aggressively marketing its product to to expand the sports reach, penetration and thereby funding? Can do better

longshotvalue

BumperD wrote: »

Bulldozing Kempton to build another unwanted all weather track and trouser a one off 100 million is a poor plan. Tear up a well located track, 150 years of tradition to make way for 3,000 houses? Surely the jockey club can come up with a business plan that doesn't involve flattening a track that is really accessible to one of the biggest urban centers in the world right on its doorstep that it should be aggressively marketing its product to to expand the sports reach, penetration and thereby funding? Can do better

The problem here seems to be that nobody is going there so NH fans only have themselves to blame. They get the crowd 1-2 days a year.

Its not a charity. Removing the AW track there and moving it somewhere else has no impact at all as its silly racing. Its a pit about the good NH racing, but anytime i look at racing there that's not weekend its all small fields and poor enough (higher quality horses but poor races), with no crowd.

If all the massive amount of complainers on twitter actually went to the races there over the years it would be thriving and have gotten new stands etc.

tryfix

It's a very special track which provides a kind of all weather type race pace with horses sweeping to the front from far out like in a Breeders Cup Dirt race.

There's no other race anywhere that's so dominated for multiple years by a very limited number of individual horses.

2016 1st Thistlecrack 2nd Cue Card 3rd Silviniaco Conti
2015 1st Cue Card 3rd Al Ferof
2014 1st Silviniaco Conti 3rd Al Ferof
2013 1st Silviniaco Conti 2nd Cue Card 3rd Al Ferof
2012 1st Long Run 2nd Captain Chris
2011 1st Kauto Star 2nd Long Run 3rd Captain Chris
2010 1st Long Run 3rd Kauto Star
2009 1st Kauto Star
2008 1st Kauto Star
2007 1st Kauto Star 3rd Exotic Dancer
2006 1st Kauto Star 2nd Exotic Dancer
2005 1st Kicking King
2004 1st Kicking King
2003 1st Edredon Blue 3rd First Gold
2002 1st Best Mate 3rd Bacchanal
2001 1st Florida Pearl 2nd Best Mate 3rd Bacchanal
2000 1st First Gold 2nd Florida Pearl
1999 1st See More Business
1998 Teeton Mill
1997 1st See More Business
1996 1st One Man 2nd Monsiuer Le Cure
1995 1st One Man 3rd Barton Bank
1994 1st Algan 2nd Monsiuer Le Cure
1993 1st Barton Bank
1992 1st The Fellow
1991 1st The Fellow
1990 1st Desert Orchid 3rd The Fellow
1989 1st Desert Orchid
1988 1st Desert Orchid
1987 1st Nupsala 2nd Desert Orchid
1986 1st Desert Orchid
1985 1st Wayward Lad
1984 1st Burrough Hill Lad
1983 1st Wayward Lad
1982 1st Wayward Lad


Christmas Racing will never be the same again when they move it.

BumperD

aidankkk wrote: »

The problem here seems to be that nobody is going there so NH fans only have themselves to blame. They get the crowd 1-2 days a year.

Its not a charity. Removing the AW track there and moving it somewhere else has no impact at all as its silly racing. Its a pit about the good NH racing, but anytime i look at racing there that's not weekend its all small fields and poor enough (higher quality horses but poor races), with no crowd.

If all the massive amount of complainers on twitter actually went to the races there over the years it would be thriving and have gotten new stands etc.

Racing has plenty of challenges. If the strategists at the JC were sent away to spend a week in a room to come up with a plan and the best they could come up with was send in the bulldozers, that's just a really lazy solution, in my opinion. References are made to using the proceeds for prize money. What happens when that runs out, send in more bulldozers? Must be a better solution!

EICVD

diomed wrote: »

Will Epsom be the only racecourse inside the M25 when Kempton closes?
Epsom is next. They can run the Derby at Lingfield as it is a similar track.

& run it on Good Friday, might drum up some interest AWC day.......

imho the decision is a joke.

It's a huge temptation for owners of racecourses to sell up, but where does it end? This is the thin end of the wedge, and with the talk of increasing prize money what's actually happening is bulldozing a historic venue to line the pockets of developers and various other fat cats. There's no need to increase national hunt prize money, it isn't as if there's a lack of horses in training. All increasing prize money does is ramp up sale prices and keeps ownership the preserve of the very wealthy. It's not as if anywhere other than britain and ireland takes national hunt seriously - there's nowhere else for the horses to go.

If Kempton Park is sold then you'll see other historic venues come under pressure, no doubt replaced with more soul-less all weather venues. The custodians of these courses are just that - their job is preserving the family silver, not selling it off for a quick buck. At the very least you would want to see total transparency about where the money goes.

Next up Leopardstown. nice prime development land there I think we can all agree. Build an all weather somewhere near Tallaght, no loss whatsoever. Is that the logic?

BumperD

https://beta.racingpost.com/news/comment/the-decision-to-close-kempton-is-wrong-on-every-possible-level/271675

Good piece by Tom Kerr.

Hulk Hands

Thought Tom made a decent case there to be fair. The bit about the Jockey Club Rooms is very interesting.

Disagree with the part about the KG losing its luster and becoming just another Grade 1 though. There will be bad points and good points about a new KG at Sandown. We've already had two very good ones there and the comments about the race particularly are just people hating change. Sandown's generally a higher rated chase track for a reason, and hypothetically if the KG had never existed and a top 3m chase to rival but be different from the GC was being muted, im fairly sure Sandown would be higher up the list than Kempton. Sad from a historical point of view but doesnt mean the new race won't be one to savour

Johner

The King George at Sandown is a mouthwatering prospect, my favourite track for watching chases.

sting60

Chelmsford have recently been granted a turf licence with casino ??My reliable information says Chelmsford will be sold for housing within four years depending on planning permission(owners not happy with the support it gets from the Essex area,BHA and the new all weather been proposed fifty miles away at Newmarket where the majority of the entries come from). Seemingly there are 1.5m people in the catchment area and a massive shortage of housing.

Harry Angstrom

sting60 wrote: »

Chelmsford have recently been granted a turf licence with casino ??My reliable information says Chelmsford will be sold for housing within four years depending on planning permission(owners not happy with the support it gets from the Essex area,BHA and the new all weather been proposed fifty miles away at Newmarket where the majority of the entries come from). Seemingly there are 1.5m people in the catchment area and a massive shortage of housing.

The majority of racegoers aren't interested in attending all-weather meetings. They're nothing more than the horse racing equivalent of greyhound BAGS meetings. Anybody who opens an AW course expecting big crowds is on a hiding to nothing, especially in the UK. Kempton started to go down the pan when they dug up the flat turf course and replaced it with sand.

sting60

Johnson and Johnson marketed rags and boxed it bright blue/white colour and called J clothes they made a fortune based on marketing.Kilbeggen worst rated track in Ireland by a country mile by (jockeys).It's now called the "farmers meeting" but it gets serious preformential treatment(marketing) from HRI getting Fridays/Saturdays but per horse running has the highest fatality rate in Europe because the track has only the shortest run in in the world of racing.Have a look at Louie Walsh/Cowell they are market experts for zero talent.Longwinded explain to say that BHA don't want Chelsmford.

sting60

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

The majority of racegoers aren't interested in attending all-weather meetings. They're nothing more than the horse racing equivalent of greyhound BAGS meetings. Anybody who opens an AW course expecting big crowds is on a hiding to nothing, especially in the UK. Kempton started to go down the pan when they dug up the flat turf course and replaced it with sand.

Harry , absolutely correct top answer BUT why is turf track,casino license granted.My opinion it's FOBTs going forward nothing to do with turf.Imaging a huge estate of 1.5 m people's catchment area betting into FOBTs as a cover for a casino.

Ben Gadot

sting60 wrote: »

Chelmsford have recently been granted a turf licence with casino ??My reliable information says Chelmsford will be sold for housing within four years depending on planning permission(owners not happy with the support it gets from the Essex area,BHA and the new all weather been proposed fifty miles away at Newmarket where the majority of the entries come from). Seemingly there are 1.5m people in the catchment area and a massive shortage of housing.

Is that normal? Seems to be a bit scummy putting a casino on a race course. Betfred doing themselves proud.

AW for me is what both the punter and runners of such courses make of it at the end of the day. Between decisions made in the recent past (Newcastle) and for the future (Newmarket), there's obviously a demand there.

The problem with AW is that both meeting and card are ran too frequently and consistently poor respectively. Your average punter will obviously find it easier to plan a trip to Cheltenham or Punchestown than trying to decide which Friday to visit Dundalk or Wolverhampton.

So I would hope this new AW at Newmarket is being designed with something better in mind.