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.
How simple can it be!
