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Pragmatically, I’d think part of the reasoning will be based on media rights. AW tracks can host more fixtures. Also, JCR have the power to attract higher class horses to AW, because they can allocate prize money, I assume, as they see fit.
The trouble with a media-rights based plan is that tracks have squeezed the bookies until they squeak and they’re not going to stand for much more of it. If media rights income is a crucial part of their plan, the best thing they could do (ruthless as it sounds) is team up with all other grade one tracks and offer the bookies a package, suggesting that the small tracks should be left to fend for themselves.
I think bookmakers would jump at the prospect of showing racing just from grade one tracks and offering an audio only service covering the tracks that survived the bloodbath.
Joe – you asked re 2021. P2 of the filed accounts states that JCR agreed a new banking facility (£95m) in March 2016 (£90m of that’s a loan; £5m a credit facility). The repayments begin in 2021, so that’s why that date has come out of the blue. The same summary page has a statement re rising levels of debt (2014: £94.2m; 2015: £105.6m). So, take out a new loan to manage the debt …
I’d love to see a breakdown of profitability of the JCR courses. Selling Kempton is clearly an attractive short term proposition, but who’s to say that it wouldn’t be followed by the need to sell off another in five years’ time, and then another …
And what happens if, as is entirely possible, the council doesn’t see Kempton/Redrow as an appropriate development site/developer? Something else needs to go before 2021 to start repaying that loan. Land values, and the demand for housing in the SE as they are, that would suggest either Epsom or Sandown. The Derby at Newmarket? The only other option would be to get rid of the unprofitable tracks.
The two other things that strike me in relation to this whole sorry saga are: 1) surely, the sale of Kempton and this £500m ‘plan’ would need to have been signed off by the Board of JCR? In which case, why does this whole thing smack of a ‘bounce’, with a timeline determined by the 10 Jan deadline for the Call for Sites – it raises some big ?s re governance for me; and 2) the response of the racing press, who – for the most part – have reported this as the end of Kempton. Instead, a bit of digging around starts to show that it is far from a done deal and there’s a much bigger story.
On Sandown: the chase course I’d say puts more of a premium on a combination of stamina/jumping than Kempton. There are horses that have won a KG at Kempton that would never have got up that hill over 3m at Sandown, but who excelled as jumpers – Edredon Bleu springs to mind. & how many times has the complexion of a staying chase at Sandown changed on that hill, whether it be good ground or a glue pot? Kempton rewards the speed/jumping combination over 3m; that’s what the KG is about. I’d agree re the hurdles course – RR’s comparison as nearest to Towcester says it all! Mid-winter ground would turn the Christmas Hurdle into a prep for the Stayers!
All good stuff but disagree about sandown and Epsom. Someone else online questioned why they didn’t sell Epsom. Pretty simple really. Aside from the fact that I’m not sure they actually own the downs I think it’s a bit unlikely planning permission would be given for a housing estate and a retail park
Esher is even more well heeled than sunbury and the residents would go mental atsuch as suggestion
I know the area well and there is a deep belief that they don’t want to be an extension of urban London. Where I grew up on the other side of kempton park was the very outer reach of the old greater London and it even feels like a different place to sunbury or Esher
Where are Racing UK in all of this (other than Nick Luck’s interview)? Do they not claim to own the courses from which they broadcast, so are they not part of JCR??
The jockey club and the other courses own racing uk, therefore racing uk don’t have a say in it as it is a jockey club only matter it is nothing to do with the other courses.
Thanks Steve
There’d be no point in selling Epsom. The downs, apart from the grandstand areas, are public land and there’s zero chance of anyone ever being able to build there.
More on this from “Get Surrey”:
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/kempton-park-redevelopment-racecourse-could-12445243
If florid histrionics are your kind of thing then you’ll love this from Alastair Down as much as I did
Composed I suspect after popping a second cork
Lubricated verbosity apart it is quite noteworthy that he and several other members of the racing fraternity you’d expect to be up in arms about the possible closure don’t actually seem too bothered: Twister, Jonjo and particularly Ruby Walsh, who’d have better reasons than many to mourn its passing
http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/article/465/10726765/ruby-walsh-kempton-closure-makes-sense
The general thrust would appear to be that while Kempton may be liked and respected it’s not loved
I’m amazed at the ferocity of Kempton’s defenders. I did not think this would be such a big deal and it made me think again about my earlier ‘Meh…’ reaction. It’s encouraging in a way to see the threat being defended so vigorously and I wish I could muster the passion to feel the same, but I can’t.
Ruby’s response was no surprise. A horse-borne model of pragmatism that man.
why joe? Kempton has had a direct hand in creating two of the biggest ever legends of jumps racing in Dessie and Kauto…..it is a very fair track that is all about speed and offers a very different test compared to more traditional national hunt tracks. A lot of trainers love bringing their good novices there….always good ground….it seems completely logical to me that a plethora of horse-people want to defend its existence. How much will an all weather track at Newmarket cost? The idea of the sale revenues going back into prize money is questionable i would say……not that any of this matters because by vibes from the council planning will never get the go-ahead.
Tremendous from Tom Kerr in the RP
I’d say Walsh still has his Confirmation money.
why joe? Kempton has had a direct hand in creating two of the biggest ever legends of jumps racing in Dessie and Kauto…..it is a very fair track that is all about speed and offers a very different test compared to more traditional national hunt tracks. A lot of trainers love bringing their good novices there….always good ground….it seems completely logical to me that a plethora of horse-people want to defend its existence. How much will an all weather track at Newmarket cost? The idea of the sale revenues going back into prize money is questionable i would say……not that any of this matters because by vibes from the council planning will never get the go-ahead.
I can’t and wouldn’t argue with any of that, HF. At the back of my mind is the thought that 60 tracks are unsustainable (I wish that were not the case). Something’s got to give and Kempton won’t be the last the way the sport is going.
There’s much more high emotion than I’d anticipated and it bothers me a wee bit that the same outcry would not have been mounted for somewhere like Sedgefield or Catterick, despite the fact that the memories there, for many, will carry as much sweetness and longing as Kempton does for others. So Kempton is kind of the equivalent of a Squirrel in racing’s PR world versus the rats that are small tracks, especially in the north. Anyway, that’s another thing altogether I suppose.
Yea, i can appreciate that…. I think you’re right that Kempton won’t be the last but for selfish reasons I hope they fail to sell…….I spend about 3 months looking forward to the King George each year
think it would lose some of its gloss at Sandown.Although it will be sad if Kempton goes, similar stories have hit horse racing, and are currently hitting greyhound racing with Wimbledon, throughout the past 300 years. Since publishing ‘Racecourses Here Today and Gone Tomorrow’ barely 2 months ago Hereford has reopened, Folkestone’s departure has become terminal, it is more likely than not that Kempton will go, and a third racecourse might appear in Newmarket to go with the two they already have. Whilst at this point in time the last rites are being given to Kempton, this is nothing new to racing. In the early 19th century Leeds lost its main racecourse because the Aire and Calder Navigation Company were given permission to divert the river through the centre of the course. St Albans Racecourse held a very prominent position in the Racing Calendar in the 1830s, but racing ceased in June 1837, yet within a year a better set of racecourses were established barely 4 miles away on 600 acres of the Gorhambury Estate which had no less than 5 distinct courses; the Fir Clump course was 2 miles in length; The Lime Kiln course was a mile and a half; the Cherry Tree Course was a mile and a yard; the TYC was a 5 furlong sprint course, whilst The Stand Course was 2 miles in circumference. If Kempton goes it will enter racing history as a course which lasted almost 150 years, but put that fact into context, it is less than Bogside (157), Rothbury (206), Lewes (252), Lanark (316) and Lincoln 367 years, and each of these were equally popular in their day.
Tremendous from Tom Kerr in the RP
The cause in every case: not lack of local use, but greed. Kempton is not an outlier; it sits smack bang in the middle of a trend that says ‘knock it all down and sell it to the highest bidder’. When even the Jockey Club is joining the side of the destroyers it might seem like there is little hope left, but we must stand up and fight this.
If we don’t one day we may realise everything that was ever worth protecting is gone, ground to dust beneath the developers’ bulldozers.
It’s nowt new Tom, another bright young thing harped on (very nicely) about it getting on for fifty years ago
Although it will be sad if Kempton goes, similar stories have hit horse racing, and are currently hitting greyhound racing with Wimbledon, throughout the past 300 years. Since publishing ‘Racecourses Here Today and Gone Tomorrow’ barely 2 months ago Hereford has reopened, Folkestone’s departure has become terminal, it is more likely than not that Kempton will go, and a third racecourse might appear in Newmarket to go with the two they already have. Whilst at this point in time the last rites are being given to Kempton, this is nothing new to racing. In the early 19th century Leeds lost its main racecourse because the Aire and Calder Navigation Company were given permission to divert the river through the centre of the course. St Albans Racecourse held a very prominent position in the Racing Calendar in the 1830s, but racing ceased in June 1837, yet within a year a better set of racecourses were established barely 4 miles away on 600 acres of the Gorhambury Estate which had no less than 5 distinct courses; the Fir Clump course was 2 miles in length; The Lime Kiln course was a mile and a half; the Cherry Tree Course was a mile and a yard; the TYC was a 5 furlong sprint course, whilst The Stand Course was 2 miles in circumference. If Kempton goes it will enter racing history as a course which lasted almost 150 years, but put that fact into context, it is less than Bogside (157), Rothbury (206), Lewes (252), Lanark (316) and Lincoln 367 years, and each of these were equally popular in their day.
This is very true. When Lincoln was lost, how strange must it have been for the Lincoln not to be run at Lincoln. But nowadays its synonymous with Doncaster. If Kempton closes in 2021 within 10 years the King George will be synonymous with Sandown.
Tremendous from Tom Kerr in the RP
I’d say Walsh still has his Confirmation money.
Good to see the politics of spite and envy still has a place in the 21st Century – this article would be more appropriate in the Morning Star or Pravda
Comrade Tom at his socialist best!!!!
Tremendous from Tom Kerr in the RP
I’d say Walsh still has his Confirmation money.
Good to see the politics of spite and envy still has a place in the 21st Century – this article would be more appropriate in the Morning Star or Pravda
Comrade Tom at his socialist best!!!!
Actually, Paul, Kerr’s article is spot on and as balanced as any on the issue I’ve read. It’s sad you have joined the camp of the enemy within alongside Down, Walsh, Twiston-Davies, O’Neill et al. The stewards of JCR should go now along with their proposal before it causes divisions too deep to heal.
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