Lingfield & Southwell Racecourses

With sport being thin on the ground today.

We thought we would take a look at horse racing, and today's two meetings at Southwell & Lingfield Park.

We take a brief look at the history of these two racecourses today.


Southwell

Southwell Racecourse  is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England. It is one of only five racecourses in the UK to have an all-weather track and is the only one with a fibresand surface. Fibresand is a mixture of sand and wispy fibres.

The racing is also of significance. The now unique fibresand racing surface is quite deep and so makes the track a good stamina test. Ability to stay the distance and fitness are therefore big advantages at Southwell. The track also often features many of the most hardworking jockeys throughout the winter, as well as plenty of high-profile stars from time to time.

National Hunt racing also occurs here. In 2007, the Great Yorkshire  Chase was held at Southwell, whilst Doncaster closed for redevelopment.

Southwell racecourse will always be associated with female jockey Hayley Turner, who grew up locally and had her first job in racing with a trainer based adjacent to the track.

The racecourse was forced to close temporarily in December 2012 when flooding caused major damage to both the track and the buildings on site. Meetings scheduled for the all weather flat course were transferred to Wolverhampton and Lingfield. The course successfully re-opened on 5 February 2013 with a seven-race flat meeting. Initial meetings following the re-opening will have a limited capacity while renovations continue.

Lingfield Park

Lingfield Park Racecourse  is a horse racing course at Lingfield in Surrey, United Kingdom. It is owned by the ARC Racing and Leisure Group, formerly Arena Leisure Plc.

Lingfield is best known as a winter all-weather flat-racing course; the track is Polytrack, rather than the usual turf found in the UK. There are only four other all weather courses in the UK, the others being at Southwell, Kempton, Wolverhampton and Chelmsford City. Lingfield stages flat racing on turf in the summer and National Hunt races are also run on turf.

Lingfield Railway Station adjoins the course, served by trains from London to East Grinstead via Oxted. 

History 

The racecourse is located in a estate and was opened in 1890 by the Prince of Wales, who also agreed to let Lingfield incorporate the Prince of Wales feathers into its official heading. The course initially held jumps racing only, but in 1894 the Jockey Club granted permission for flat racing to be held. Racing has been held continuously ever since, with the only exception being during World War II when the War Office requisitioned the course. Ladbrokes sold the course in 1982 and the new owners installed flood defences on the estate to alleviate the flooding that had become a major problem in the years immediately after the war. A golf course was developed and this opened in June 1987. Arena Leisure purchased the course in 1991, and in 2001 made the decision to replace the Equitrack all weather surface with Polytrack, opening in November 2001. Other recent developments have been the re-laying of the back straight on the turf course in 2002/2003 and the construction of a £5.5 million grandstand in 2004. In early 2009 the course had another record broken as Matsunosuke became the highest rated horse to win on the all weather surface rated 112 or 117 by Racing Post rating. This was dubbed as the greatest all weather horse of all time in the UK.

The racecourse is featured in the 1954 film The Rainbow Jacket.

Tipster Street.