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“What’s the crowd there on Racing Post Chase Day or whatever it’s called now?”
This year it was 3,387. Not exactly packed out.
Maybe I am putting 2 and 2 together and making 5 but why was a Boxing Day fixture introduced at Aintree in 2023 out of the blue?
My maths is the same CAS, does seem strange.
The talk of an AW track at Newmarket wouldn’t be far off either to replace Kempton. Yes there is Chelmsford near, but its independently owned.The Jockey Club should be ashamed of how Kempton has declined, and that they have failed as custodians of such an important piece of racing’s heritage. I’d agree with others that the decline set in when the turf Flat course was replaced with the all-weather.
It will be desperately sad if the place ends up being tarmacked over, and all there is to show of it in a few years’ time is a housing estate containing “King George Close” and “Desert Orchid Drive”.
If you analyse any company with multi-divisions, in this case racecourses, then the key is investment. Over the last few years there has been very little, if any, investment in Kempton Park, a sure sign it is on the way out.
It is very difficult to justify keeping a racecourse when it only has one decent race in a year, especially if it sits on valuable land. That one race needs to go to a right-handed track.
I was at Upton Park a year before it closed , still sound but uncared for , that’s exactly how I felt at KP the same vibe , on the money there Value31 .
Bar the big festivals I sense a very slow winding back of jumps racing in UK , fields aweful , entrance prices bonkers .
The land far exceeds its value as a venue , a bit like most lower league football teams .Agree with the comments above. I think racing has to be realistic and face up to a post-Kempton future.
It will be sad to see the place go. As Marlingford writes, it is an important part of racing’s history. And from a personal point of view, I have good memories of the venue – at least of the track prior to 2005. However, tracks cannot survive on history and memories.
It is worth remembering that when the all weather track was constructed, the original plan was for NH racing to finish at Kempton. The jumps track only won a reprieve after protests. If the jumps track had closed in 2005, would we be having this discussion now? Who would care if an all weather track closed?
Value31 is right – it is very difficult to continue to defend a racecourse which in effect exists for one day. Especially when that racecourse is on prime real estate, near to the M25 and Heathrow Airport and has a railway station which allows access to Waterloo in 45 minutes.
Ted Walsh was on RTV last night and said the situation reminded him of when Phoenix Park closed in Dublin. Some people were unhappy at the time but racing got over the loss eventually. Walsh argued that Leopardstown (which received some of Phoenix Park’s races, including the Champion Stakes) has thrived as a Flat venue since.
I think we should also recognise that many tracks have closed in Britain as well. City venues such as Birmingham, Manchester, Hurst Park and Alexandra Park all closed which were far better attended than Kempton is now.
It seems to me that the Jockey Club wants to improve Cheltenham, Aintree, Epsom and Newmarket. If the sale of Kempton allows that to happen and also secures the future of the Jockey Club’s other tracks, is that such a bad thing?
If the old pre-2005 Kempton still existed and someone tried to close it, I would have laid down in front of the bulldozers along with Henderson and Nicholls. But that track doesn’t exist. Watching it on RTV last night, it looked drab and uninspiring.
Would that track really be such a loss? Yes, I see the argument about the jumps track (right handed, decent ground) but outside of Boxing Day, very few people attend.
Absolutely right Cork All Star,JCR want rid partly because nobody goes but nobody goes because of what JCR did to Kempton.
For me the managed decline started in the mid 90s when they removed the old parade ring with its two tiered viewing and “refurbished “ the main stand leaving Miriam Francome memorably describing it as like being at Tesco’sI’d quite like to have made a trip there in recent years but I’m not going to do weekends or Christmas. After sorting through their fixtures that leaves Mondays only for jumping. Shameful and probably deliberate.
I agree there has been an amount of managed decline. The Jockey Club must have had an eye on the real estate value and decided it wasn’t worth investing in the venue. As I said, I haven’t visited for about ten years, so I can’t say what it is like now. However, all the reports I have heard are not good.
To think of what the Flat racing used to be like at Kempton. There was the sprint course up the middle, as with Sandown and Longchamp. There was the main track, following the outline of the jumps circuit. And there was the Jubilee Course, starting on a spur away in the distance and winding its way back towards the stands. All much better than the bland all weather oval, which also causes that ugly crossover on the jumps track.
Thinking of the sprint track, Sir Mark Prescott (when interviewed on RTV last night) said that Aintree’s sprint course was in the same style up the middle of the circuit. He seemed to believe the Jockey Club intends to reintroduce the Flat to Aintree.
Even if the place was jazzed up it doesn’t change the quality of racing there. Once the turf flat course was done away with it really has little appeal it’ll be sad to see it go but what is the point in holding on to it.
The more I know the less I understand.
Even though there has been managed decline, it has to be said Kempton has never been a particularly popular track. I always quite liked it but even when I attended about 20 to 25 years ago, the crowds were never that large. Certainly when compared to its near neighbours Ascot, Sandown and even Epsom back in those days.
It will be a sad day when it closes in terms of history but as we head into 2026, I don’t believe racing can realistically hold onto a track which exists for one day a year. Especially in a densely populated area with its housing stock under pressure.
Looking at the bigger picture than Kempton, the common themes are there is too much racing and field sizes are too small. With a decreasing horse population and dwindling betting turnover, does British racing still require something like 60 tracks? No one really likes to see a racecourse close but I doubt Kempton will be the last.
It doesn’t help when high profile trainers such as Dan Skelton just shrug their shoulders. Has he ever had a top class winner there? What if the Jockey Club wanted to concrete over Warwick racecourse?Just thankful he wasn’t training in the 1970s when the threat of the bulldozers at Aintree was ever present.
Kempton is the closest course to our capital city and perhaps one of the reasons attendances have dwindled (no thanks to The Jockey Club not investing in the course) is the rapidly changing demographic in the last 20 years. Have a look at any racecourse and tell me how diverse the crowd is?
Sandown is no substitute for Kempton especially in the Winter months. Sandown’s hurdles course is nearly always a slog and won’t take many more meetings.
If racing sacrifices a Grade 1 track (probably one of the fairest tracks in the UK) and with the amount of history Kempton holds then all those involved should hang their heads in shame.
I blogged on this yesterday, mostly in response to Lydia’s reply to one of my posts on X: Lydia strongly believes that a commercial case can be made for Kempton’s contribution to racing in general via the facilities (racing-wise) it provides for the development of good horses.
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The threat of closure looms again after Jockey Club CEO Jim Mullen claimed last week that the future of Kempton is now out of his hands. A deal was done in 2018 with house builders Redrow, who have the option of building there. That option expires in 2028. Redrow reportedly have no current plans to execute the option.
Mullen says the Jockey Club has costly investment plans, mainly for Aintree and Cheltenham, though all tracks are expected to benefit. The Club owns:
North
Aintree
Carlisle
Haydock Park
Midlands & East
Huntingdon
Market Rasen
Newmarket (both the Rowley Mile and July Course)
Nottingham
London
Epsom Downs
Kempton Park
Sandown Park
South West
Cheltenham (home of the Cheltenham Festival)
Exeter
Warwick
Wincanton
The Jockey Club has for some time nurtured plans for building a track at Newmarket for all weather racing.
Jack Keene reported in The Sun on December 17th:
With the government set to relax planning laws and the threat to Kempton ramping up, Amy Starkey, who was appointed the Jockey Club’s ‘Project Newmarket Director’ in May, has been driving plans for a new all-weather track forward.
She has made presentations to Jockey Club members and various racing stakeholders around the proposed new racecourse, which would be situated on the large expanse of land behind the grandstands at the Rowley Mile.
The floodlit all-weather track would replace Kempton’s 54 Flat fixtures, were Kempton to close, while the plans for Newmarket also involve building new homes and a country park.
The Jockey Club declined to comment on the Newmarket project.
Jim Mullen, speaking this week on the Nick Luck podcast, said that Jockey Club Racecourses must be lean and fit before it begins investing, hence the plans for some redundancies. Should we assume that this drive for a lean and fit organisation has included a detailed consideration about the wisdom of closing Kempton. Does it make commercial sense? Does it make sense for an organisation whose very existence, as a non-profit group, is premised on investing in racing?
Does investing in racing mean racing in general or only in the tracks owned by the Club?
Reactions to the proposed closure of Kempton have been mixed except from those working in the industry, who, on the whole, condemn it in the strongest terms—“Jockey Club should hang its head in shame.”
The protests seemed, to me at least, more emotional than practical. The King George VI Chase, first run in 1937, is dear to the hearts of long-term fans. But professionals also value Kempton for its flat, right-handed layout and its provision, consistently, of decent ground in the depth of winter.
While the King George is the diamond event at the track, Kempton hosts numerous other graded NH races:
Grade 1 Races
King George VI Chase
Kauto Star Novices’ Chase
Christmas Hurdle
Desert Orchid Chase
Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase
Grade 2 Races:
Dueling Grounds Juvenile Hurdle
Adonis Juvenile Hurdle (February)
Pendil Novices’ Chase (February)
Ballymore Leamington Novices’ Hurdle (January)
Grade 3 Races:
Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle (January)
Coral Handicap Chase
Coral Racing Club Handicap Hurdle
(the above list from Claude:AI: I have not double-checked them)
Broadcaster and journalist Lydia Hislop, a strong supporter of Kempton, said today on X: “The value of Kempton to top-class jump racing has not been evaluated in any spreadsheet, I am willing to bet. This is not an emotional argument I am making; it is a commercial one.”
And this returns us to the lean and fit claims made by Jim Mullen. Has the commercial impact of closure been reliably evaluated in that specific instance – “to top-class jump racing”? Do the ripples from Kempton’s NH fixtures spread far enough across the sport to deliver a commercial ‘trickle down’? If so, is Mullen willing to cut off that supply on the basis that there is no measurable financial benefit to the Jockey Club via the Kempton coffers?
If a convincing commercial case could be made that all of racing benefits financially from Kempton, might Kempton have a stay of execution in exchange for the track billing all other NH courses by way of a tax on the Kempton Trickle Down?
That sounds to me like a very tough vessel to launch and keep afloat, but there are few commenting on this subject who have the rounded experience in the industry that Hislop has.
If it’s true that Mullen believes All Weather at Newmarket is a better proposition than all weather at Kempton, it brings the sport no further forward, because it deepens the reliance on bookmakers, though that argument itself is probably pointless as racing has so many eggs in the bookies’ basket, one more won’t matter.
The sport should at least try to diversify. Mullen wants the best from each asset, yet racecourses, on the face of it, present one of the worst business proposals you could imagine. Take Aintree: the venue covers 270 acres and has five grandstands: the core business uses these assets to the full on 7 days each year.
In what universe does this make sense? And it is not at all uncommon in the sport. Even triple that number of racedays, and it leaves these huge, expense-hungry businesses effectively idle for 90% of the year.
Other events take place—weddings, conferences, some have golf courses, car boot sales, exhibitions, but these must contribute a tiny percentage of total income.
Look at the advantages the Jockey Club would have in, for example, setting up a nationwide car hire business. Driving schools. Green gyms. Office space rental—this is a potential big earner: how many hospitality boxes sit empty when they could be rented out to businesses at various levels? A premium deal, perhaps including a package for each raceday to entertain clients?
Leasing space for Travel Inn type hotels. Providing business hubs, pop up shops/offices. The land could be used for flight schools, for hire to local authorities for training purposes, management away-day companies, team building.
I’m certain half a dozen innovators bouncing ideas around could suggest a raft of income streams to make those empty acres and vacant buildings much more commercially viable.
With millions in media-rights cash flowing into racecourses, they’ll never be in a better position to invest in diversification, which is one of only three strategies any business has (market penetration and market development the others, and we’ve made a pretty poor fist when trying those two). Far too many businesses fear diversification. I worked at Aintree in the mid ‘90s. After my first Grand National in 1994 I recall seeing the invoice for temporary tentage – it was hundreds of thousands. I proposed that Jockey Club Racecourses set up their own tentage company, given it would be easily able to justify such an investment with the number of tracks it had. The answer was: ‘our business is to run racecourses’.
More all weather tracks are not the answer, especially when bookies are assuring us racing is dying as a betting product (without mentioning the stranglehold they have on clever punters).
The Jockey Club ought to widen its thinking on Kempton, on its tracks, and on its obligations to the sport. Radical change is needed. What Jim Mullen seems to be promising is more of the same.
Joe, that is a really substantial contribution with a host of facts, observations and arguments. There was an article about the Kempton closure plan in 2017, which focussed on Thierry Doumen’s dismay and the setting up of a battle by green belt protestors to stop the planning pernmission.
Doumen’s contribution strongly supports your arguments and Lydia Hislop’s about the suitability of the ground in the winter.
Jim Mullen’s approach, having come from the publishing industry and Ladbrokes, through whose eyes he probably sees UK horseracing, is, as you say, entirely lacking in imagination. He is just reaching for the first and most obvious means of raking in a capital sum. All the entirely valid and indeed, straightforward means of raising funds to develop the sport in the UK which you outline have probably never been considered. It must be asked what the credentials are of his financial advisers? Do their interests encompass the well being of the sport which could see it developed across the whole spectrum of tracks with the application of imagination and the sort of funding streams which you mention.
You have commented many times on the paucity of the leadership of UK horseracing given the nature of the tripartite organisational structure. The Jockey Club has a real opportunity to launch a real programme of re-vitalisation of the kind that you outline, but which is about to fall at the first hurdle. It is indeed depressing.
Joe,
That list of races is both incomplete and inaccurate – isn’t AI wonderful. But the general point is correct, it’s more than just the King George.
I’ve been reminiscing about Kempton today and it’s interesting to note how some of the fixtures have been undermined by other courses. Charisma Gold Cup day in mid October was a Saturday that pretty much marked the start of the main NH season at the London tracks. It was the same Saturday as the Champion Stakes, so when that race was moved to nearby Ascot, Kempton were forced to move their fixture to Sunday. And as all the London tracks have demonstrated time and again, nobody in that area loves a Sunday meeting.
Then there was the Saturday in September, that featured the September Stakes and the Sirenia Stakes. In 2011, Ascot were granted a fixture on that Saturday and the two have competed for racegoers ever since – guess who’s winning.
Kempton had a pair of Guineas trials usually run on Easter Saturday. The Pattern committee decided they weren’t required/good enough. They existed for a while as conditions races, but eventually just faded away. The big early season handicaps, the Jubilee and the Rosebery, had declined long before they were being run on the AW.
They had a good 3yo Listed race in May called the Heron Stakes, now run at Sandown. The two day NH meeting at the end of February included the 3M Rendlesham Hurdle, now run at Haydock.
I’ve reached the conclusion that the JC haven’t done a single positive thing for Kempton for as long as I can remember. In fact it’s been downhill ever since Desert Orchid retired.
It is more than the King George – but that is the only day which attracts a crowd. Even in the heyday of the races AP mentions, Kempton was often sparsely attended. I went to the September Stakes meeting a few times pre-2005 and there was generally only about 4,000 to 5,000 in attendance – not good for a top track on a Saturday.
Kempton was one of Channel 4 Racing’s core tracks. Back in the days when the good old BBC showed racing, Kempton would often be Channel 4’s feature meeting. As such, the likes of the September Stakes and the spring handicaps got top billing. Once Channel 4 and later still ITV took over all racing coverage, Kempton outside of the King George has either been forced to share coverage with another meeting or be relegated to a supporting event sideshow.
The likes of the Rosebery and the Queens Prize used to be lively betting contests. Does anyone even notice them now?
For the myriad words written about Kempton and the health of our sport in general, one fact had me stopping and puondering. Steve Prior, who runs a marketing agency, messaged me saying he used to work with Kempton and their biggest income stream was from regular antique fairs.
Think about that. It sums up the whole sport. Despite all the capital investment in tracks, were it not for Levy and media rights money, the vast majority of tracks would have to close.
Without bookmakers we do not have a viable sport. The parties who snort from the trough appear to have no interest in changing this scenario. None will raise a head from that trough long enough to plead with the others for collective action. They’re driven by fear of the inevitable – the trough will dry up – so they need to get their share until it does. After that, who cares? And,it seems, before it the same applies – who cares?
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