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Racecourse Closure

PlaceBacker

PlaceBacker

Senior Jockey
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Messages
2,895
Does anybody think we will lose a UK track this year?

Reason I ask is was told today by not a bad source that the future of Redcar is not good
 
I hope not, but nothing stays the same forever.

I've never actually been to Redcar (never struck me as visually appealing on TV) but I associate it with ITV Racing, sometimes a few races in a midweek broadcast, dating back to the 1970s, the Zetland Gold Cup, the Andy Capp Handicap, the Vaux Breweries Gold Tankard Sea Pigeon farmed, and those multi/coloured length boards near the winning post that reminded me of a Totopoly Board.

 
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It strikes me that the racing bubble is inflated to bursting point, so wouldn't be surprised if some/several courses are struggling

I've enjoyed all the racecourses I've visited (about half of them) as each is unique - vive la difference - but Redcar is not especially appealing, though I haven't been there for 20 years or so
 
Would be a shame as it's right on the sea front almost.
When I went many moons ago, when I lived in the north east, the stand seemed pretty new.
 
It would be sad to lose Redcar but you do have to wonder if it has been managed well.

I used to love the televised meetings from there. I think it might have been because I mad a few winners there in my early punting days as a (ahem) teenager.

Later, in the early 1980s, I remember (in the days when I spent a lot of time on midweek racing) sitting in the staffroom at morning interval and being invited to play fives at lunchtime by a colleague. I replied with an apology, that I was going up the road to the bookie's to back a horse.

He asked me about it so I told him it struck me that this one was a course specialist and had everything going for it today so the chances were that it was trying. In those days we only had the card in the evening paper so I was going by the paper forecast of 10/1. I had planned to put my then maximum bet of 50p ew. He handed me a fiver and said stick that on for me. I said, "Each-way?" "Nah," he replied, "On the nose. I trust your judgment."

So I toddled off up to the bookie's at lunchtime and took the board price of 14/1. After work we headed up together to see how it had got on. When we walked into the shop I felt a sharp dig in my ribs. "Fvck me, mate, it's fvckin' won. Ya fvckin' beauty." It had won. I think the sp was 7/1.

I was pestered for a while after that but it didn't last long. A few losers and suddenly I couldn't tip shite into a piggery.

(Still can't, I hear them say...)

Hope Redcar stays open but they need to get some decent racing going there again.
 
Think downfall of Redcar is they have the same owners as Catterick and Wetherby and I think the former is pencilled in to be the next all weather track.
 
It was a place apart Luke.
Robert Hall earned his racing stripes as an in house cctv announcer, analyst and reviewer in the mid 1980s when I frequented there.
The glamour on the big days; Heinz 57 and Irish Champion Day was a sight in recession ridden Ireland.
The brouhaha that went with the Cartier Goffs Million was reminiscent of the beginning of the Irish Sweepstakes in the 1930s I suppose.
The first IR£10k Bumper, sponsored by Mercedes Benz.
I remember my uncle's Brave Run, trained by Pat Hughes in a photo finish with Youpon, a Ted Curtin trained Ted Walsh ridden USA bred .
The photo took 15 minutes to develop, Brave Run runner up yet again.
The evening when the yuppy filofax brigade descended to see "their " Classic Thoroughbred Puissance win a sprint, the share price holding after Saratogan's 2000 Gns flop saw a share price high of 41p dip over the weekend, before it was a bank holiday here.
My friend Richard remembers Jerry Hall walking down the grandstand steps one raceday.
" She moved like a cobra " he said and I'm sure was twice as deadly to mere mortals like us.
It was an experience for sure, not to repeated anytime soon.
 
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Would be a shame - but Redcar has become a place for a lot of very poor racing . The late Leslie Petch would be appalled by the dross .

The days of the Vaux Gold tankard, Andy Capp Handicap ( which went to York) , the William Hill Gold Cup etc are long gone - now only the Zetland GC , the 2 year old trophy and the Guisborough Stakes are of any quality at all .

In the old days the purpose of the Racecourse Holdings Trust would be to swoop and prevent closure but the Jockey Club clearly can no longer be arsed as their response to the closures of Folkestone and the thankfully temporary Hereford showed.

I cannot see how an AW track at Catterick is feasible with Newcastle not that far away.
 
edgt said:
It was a place apart Luke.
Robert Hall earned his racing stripes as an in house cctv announcer, analyst and reviewer in the mid 1980s when I frequented there.
The glamour on the big days; Heinz 57 and Irish Champion Day was a sight in recession ridden Ireland.
The brouhaha that went with the Cartier Goffs Million was reminiscent of the beginning of the Irish Sweepstakes in the 1930s I suppose.
The first IR£10k Bumper, sponsored by Mercedes Benz.
I remember my uncle's Brave Run, trained by Pat Hughes in a photo finish with Youpon, a Ted Curtin trained Ted Walsh ridden USA bred .
The photo took 15 minutes to develop, Brave Run runner up yet again.
The evening when the yuppy filofax brigade descended to see "their " Classic Thoroughbred Puissance win a sprint, the share price holding after Saratogan's 2000 Gns flop saw a share price high of 41p dip over the weekend, before it was a bank holiday here.
It was an experience for sure, not to repeated anytime soon.
Click to expand...
Aussie Jim McGrath was racecourse commentator there in the 80s.

The Park was just a short walk from where I grew up. I started going there about age 14 and rarely missed a meeting until leaving Ireland in 1989. It closed a year or two later and I was glad I wasn’t around to endure that. Fora long time I seldom went racing anywhere else, so I didn’t really appreciate how unique it was.

The Artane Boys played in a bandstand beside the Tote payout windows, so if you had winnings to collect you might find yourself stepping along to something like Juantanamera.
 
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