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I am not sure if it can be called a reliable source but on last night’s “Barstewards Enquiry” podcast, the team said they have been told that Kempton Park is going to be closed in 2026 before the site is sold off for housing.
I cannot find it confirmed anywhere else, so I don’t know where they have got their information from.
This sale was speculated a few years ago now and the money was going to be used to build an all weather track in Newmarket. It all seemed to go quiet, so I assumed the idea had been shelved.
I think Lee Keys has got some industry contacts and quite a few of their exclusive scoops over the past 12 months have turned out to be true.
I would be pretty confident this turns out to be accurate.
He certainly seemed very confident about it, describing it as a signed off and done deal.
Used to like going Kempton flat evenings in summer and jumps in winter well before the AWT .
Be a shame if it goes though , went back there for an evening meeting few years ago , i thought the place looked bit tatty if iam being honest , put it down to post covid blues . Still had good night , was on hand to watch Callan gets his wired crossed and go a circuit early in last which was mildly amusing to my non racing son .
Hope it survives though .If the Barstewards are correct and Kempton is closed, it prompts an obvious question: where will the King George be run?
Sandown and Ascot are the obvious alternative replacements. But the ground is often very heavy at the former and the latter already races on the weekend before Christmas. Would it want to race on Boxing Day as well?
Here is a suggestion from out of left field. How about Aintree? Why else did the Jockey Club all of a sudden start racing there on Boxing Day two years ago? Was this a way of gently introducing the track into the festive fixtures before making it the main event?
I suppose it would mean the King George would move from a right handed to left handed track. But at least Aintree is still more of a speed course, whereas Sandown and Ascot are stamina tracks.
The Tolworth Hurdle was moved from Sandown to Aintree (now the Formby Hurdle), so there is already one Grade 1 which has been changed.
CAS,
I had the same thought about Aintree and also wondered if the purpose of starting a Boxing Day meeting there, was to test whether it could attract a big enough crowd.
I also reckon both Ascot and Sandown would face strong resistance from local residents if they proposed a Boxing Day meeting at either track.
Does the race have to be run on Boxing Day? If you say that isn’t essential, then Cheltenham on New years Day already gets a bigger crowd than Kempton.
Moving the King George to Aintree would see three of the season’s four open Grade One staying chases run in the North West.
Terrible idea.
The attendances at Aintree on Boxing Day were 6,002 in 2023 and 5,902 last year. This compares favourably with the Old Roan meeting in late October.
The 2024 meeting was run in thick fog which rendered all but the last obstacle invisible. The weather must have put off a few people who were thinking of paying on the day. Otherwise the crowd held up well and I think it would have been larger than the 2023 meeting if the weather had been good.
Aintree has the infrastructure to host the King George and already races on Boxing Day. The crowd would obviously be larger but I don’t see it reaching the same level as any of the days of the April meeting. With no races over the National course, there would be no need to close the Melling Road. I don’t believe local residents would be inconvenienced, unlike at Sandown or Ascot.
I don’t suppose the race has to be run on Boxing Day but it is a traditional part of Christmas for many people. I think there would be some resistance if the authorities suggested running the race at Ascot on the Saturday before the festive season, or on New Year’s Day at Cheltenham.
Wouldn’t the latter make it a second Cheltenham Gold Cup but run over two furlongs shorter? At least Aintree retains the flat, speedy track nature of the race, albeit run the other way around.
As for more top class races being in the North of England, I don’t see the problem. The country is already far too London centric. Why shouldn’t more top sporting events be held elsewhere?
“Why shouldn’t more top sporting events be held elsewhere?”
Why should one corner of the country have 75% of the top staying chases? How is that fair to racing fans in other parts of the UK? You already have the Betfair Chase and the Aintree Bowl on your doorstep; wanting the King George as well is just being greedy.
When the King George had to be moved, in both 1995 and 2005, it went to Sandown. That is the only logical choice.
If the King George is moved to Sandown Park, then so be it. But I believe it would change the race far more than moving it to Aintree would.
Even though Sandown is the same way round as Kempton, the ground would in all likelihood be heavier and there is an uphill finish. It would turn the race into a slog.
If the wish is to keep it in the south and on a RH sharpish track then how about Huntingdon or Wincanton? The former tends to have half-decent going throughout winter and is easily accessible up/down the A1 which would mitigate the problem of no trains on Boxing Day. Wincanton has an extant meeting on Boxing Day. Neither are ‘metropolitan’ courses though.
Or ‘oop North how about Doncaster, LH galloping admittedly, but IMO a rather under-utilised NH track which, again, tends to have decent ground over winter
Hope the lake is spared at Kempton: it would be a nice focal point for the residents to admire from their shiny new little boxes
Huntingdon did race on Boxing Day for many years but the Jockey Club transferred the fixture to Aintree in 2023, boosting the new card by also moving the Tolworth Hurdle from Sandown.
It would look a bit odd to start racing at Huntingdon again. I have only visited once (in the late 90s), so I am not sure if it is capable of staging a big race. All I remember is it did seem to be a bit in the middle of nowhere.
Drone,
That lake wasn’t always quite such an attractive feature, I can remember going racing there when it looked like this:
Most of the gravel used in building the London end of the M3 and M4 came from Kempton Park.
The current lake is designated a Site of Nature Conservation Importance. If protestors can find a rare frog or newt species there, that’ll put a stop to any development!
I thought the conservation issue was the main reason why the original plan to sell the land had been shelved.
Of course, the Barstewards may be completely wrong. But Keys was hyper confident about his information and is going to look like a fool if he is wrong.
Huntington and Ascot were the first courses that came to mind. Could add it to the Peterborough Chase card and move it back to Boxing Day?
If they want to be really radical; might they consider Windsor?
A lot of former gravel/opencast workings around the country have become nature reserves. The Kempton lakes have the largest Heronry in Greater London apparently, which is presumably why the Heron Stakes at the course (is it still run?) was so named
I’m all for protected wildlife areas actually, particularly within otherwise nature-denuded urban sprawl
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