Gaff Tracks No Longer With Us

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michael_o

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The Gaff Track thread got me thinking about gaff tracks which are now closed, and wondering whether any forumites had visited them (when very young of course). I spent a day at Wye races just before it closed and it most definitely merited the description "gaff".

Others I can think of off the top of my head are Rothbury, Woore, Lewes, Lanark, Ally Pally and Mullingar in Ireland. Birmingham, Manchester and Lincoln don't count!
 
I live a couple of miles away from Lanark racecourse - now used for various functions. The scoreboard (is that the word) still stands.
 
I went to Wye a couple of times. A 3 mile chase took 3 laps.
Teesside Park/Stockton must qualify.
Hurst Park must have been far from a gaff track but lost to housing.
 
Tralee was sold for housing -I don't think the building ever happened and they might have run a few point to points there.
I always liked Hereford for novice chases.
 
I've played cricket at Alexandra Park CC and I'm pretty sure that some of the railing from the old track was still visible in those days (the 80s). My old boy, Sam Shorrock, won at both Folkestone and Hereford so I've particular affection for them.
 
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Phoenix Park was no gaff though, it had the best sprint track in Ireland, dead straight and slightly downhill. What a sight it would have been to see Slade and Sole Power performing on it.

All I ever heard about Baldoyle was that the wind coming in off Dublin Bay would skin you.

I never heard of Woore, michael, but the wikipedia entry makes it sound interesting:
The track was a mile round, with very sharp left hand bends. Horses had to gallop over a bridge between the last two jumps. As the course was constantly turning, it paid to be close to the rails. According to former jockey, Bernard Wells, it felt "as though you were going round on the inside of a saucepan."[1] Since the course was also used for grazing, it was regularly covered with cow pats, an unpleasant experience for the jockeys who would be covered by it; low-hanging branches also made riding difficult for jockeys.[1]
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My Dad used to take the family to Lanark Loch when we were kids. I was already a racing fan so he took me to see Lanark Racecourse which by then was closed.........what I saw could only be described as a dump.

Teesside was a real favourite among northern jockeys and many were sad to see it go.

10 points to anyone who knows this course
 

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Eleanora Duse said:
Teesside Park/Stockton must qualify.
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I wouldn't have classified Stockton as a gaff track; galloping with sweeping bends, unlike the tight affairs that gaff tracks usually are. Like Birmingham, it served a large conurbation and put on decent cards under both codes. I remember as a boy watching live racing from the track, on the BBC (I think).
 
Archie wins a lollypop :0) well spotted mate I wouldn't have had a clue myself. I just wondered why no one had mentioned it so I went googling.
 
A geezer called Chris Pitt wrote a book about old racetracks like Hurst Park and Lewes and loads more. Think the Grand National was at Gatwick once.
 
Lanark closed before I ever got to visit. Is there a football pitch in the middle or close by? I vaguely remember playing somewhere around there.

Bogside closed before that. I remember it being talked about.

Was the flapping track at Langholm ever a 'proper' track?
 
michael-o:
probably fair comment. Cecil, Hern and Walwyn, amongst others, were trainers who sent horses there quite often. Never actually been racing there but sadly been shopping. Not sure I ever watched on TV? Redcar yes and to my mind that's a gaff track.
 
Loved Hereford.

One of my first times racing, saw Taffy Jones and Thar An Barr in a Chase.

Great times.
 
Is Folkestone closed? Went there a lot as a teenager.

Ally Pally was called the frying pan, as they raced down the handle ran round and raced back up the handle to the finish (obviously not every distance). Never went, nearly always evening meetings.
 
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Singing Detective said:
A geezer called Chris Pitt wrote a book about old racetracks like Hurst Park and Lewes and loads more. Think the Grand National was at Gatwick once.
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The Chris Pitt book is titled A Long Time Gone and is well worth a read.

There used to be a rules course at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire. The grandstand from the old days is still there and in use for the point-to-point course that is now there - well worth a visit as a lovely track.

Martin
 
Folkestone haven't staged meetings since December 2012, the last big event there was a military show with tanks and the like on the course I believe so will be a good while before they're able to race again if anyone bought it and wanted to race on.

They staged a point-to-point at Hereford in May - very well attended by all accounts just a shame that the fields weren't overly big.

Martin
 
Tuam used hold a meeting after three days of Galway until early 1970s; 73 I think.
Never there but I am told it was tight and terrifying.
They had a site for a new Galway course at the time, a fair galloping track to be developed with the current track closing at much the same time as Tuam.
It never happened.
Tralee was quite a lovely track. i remember the "Rose of Tralee " festival meet in the 1970s was like a mix of Mardi Gras and Kentucky Derby with roses everywhere ( female and flowers), brass bands, crowds of people and Paddy Mullins, D K Weld and others plundering the prizes.
 
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