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Andrew Dietz raised this prospect after an interregnum of almost 50 years in the Post on Friday. Flat horseracing in high Summer in Liverpool – what a delightful picture in our bleak midwinter! What did the course look like back in 1976? What would it look like in the future? Tell me it won’t be AW
Final race result Knowsley Stakes in April ’76
1. B Taylor (Royal Fanfare) – H Price
2. W Carson (Bailadour) – G Balding
3. T Ives (Barbecue) – R HollinsheadInterestingly Red Rum’s very first race was a 5F flat race at Aintree, which he dead heated for and was one of three races he won on the flat. Lester finished 2nd on him as a three year old at the course too!
Never Say Die and Lester was also beaten at the course in the Union Jack Stakes on his first start as a 3 yr old but just three races later he won the Derby!
I have had a look online to see if there are any pics of Aintrees’s flat course and this very old course map was the only thing I could find (fingers crossed the image link works):
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/aintree-race-course-map.html?sortBy=relevant
Unfortunately Dietz’s article is behind a paywall.
I am fairly sure that the old April meeting at Aintree had more Flat racing than jumps, despite the Grand National being the main event. The old BBC commentaries used to refer to the Grand National runners crossing over the Melling Road and ‘back onto the racecourse”.
Chester and Haydock draw large amounts of people from Liverpool in the summer, so Flat racing does appeal in the locality. Would a third Flat course in the area be too much?
One of the stands at Aintree has honours boards on the wall for races that are long gone. I think most of them are for Flat races.
I don’t suppose anyone in the crowd at Aintree 101 years ago could have realised what they were witnessing when Lord Derby’s Pharos won the Summer Cup. For Pharos was to become an outstanding stallion. The great grandsire of Northern Dancer and four times great grandsire of Frankel.
Flat racing ended in 1972 with the building of the Mildmay chase course. Before that, the small number of chases were all run over the National fences.
At the same time, the flat course was converted to a permanent hurdle course.
One story from that era involves the Schweppes sponsorship of a big handicap hurdle, which was first run at Aintree. The directors of the company and their guests arrived expecting the same standard of hospitality most of them had experienced as attendees at Royal Ascot. Mrs Topham put them in a dingy room with no view of the racecourse and served stale cheese sandwiches. The race was moved to Newbury!
Thanks AP – I wondered why the Schweppes was moved from Aintree to Newbury. I should have realised it had something to do with Mrs Topham!
If the Flat is revived, all that remains to be done is reopen to old Formula One circuit and the old Aintree will be back.
From a long stale memory, I think Aintree once had 17 flat meetings. Mrs Topham reportedly regarded them as little more than a nuisance. She wouldn’t spend a penny on facilities that were close to falling apart, leading to what would become an annual question: will this be the last Grand National?
Steeplechasing, I remember those days when rummy won in 1977 it was reported that he saved the race. Until then it was either a shopping mall, car park or housing estate. Back in the seventies the was lots of mixed racing especially round spring time. Now I’m not even sure Sandown counts.
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.
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