Kempton Park closure, good or bad?

I have not studied this much yet, who is the company going in with the jockey club and Will be making all the money?

Are the Qataris involved?

Simon Bazalgette, the chief executive of the Jockey Club, said on Tuesday that Kempton had been submitted as a site for a housing development after Spelthorne council issued a “Call For Sites” to address housing needs. The sale is planned to generate “at least £100m” which will be invested in a new all-weather course at Newmarket, the centre of British Flat racing, and in a programme of improvements at Sandown which will upgrade customer facilities and the racing surface.

Many dozens of racecourses have closed since organised racing developed as a popular spectator sport in the middle of the 18th century. Folkestone, which is also expected to be developed for housing, was the most recent closure in December 2012, while Aintree, the home of the Grand National, almost suffered the same fate in the mid-1970s.

They are saying they will take it to Sandown, Aren't they

No one wants to hear it, no matter that it's the truth.

There is an over-supply in racing.

Foals, races, racedays and racecourses. Tipsters and Cheltenham Preview nights.

It is an unsustainable, low-grade (predominantly) bloated behemoth, which somehow thinks it should be shielded from commercial realities. Whole swathes of our heavy engineering industry have been decimated, being forced to turn to quality and scarcity rather than packing it high and selling it cheap, but racing bumbles on, thinking it is immune from real world economics.

I love the sport and I love its people....its characters...its history and sense of chivalry and connection to something life-affirming and worthwhile.

I love these things with my life, which is why I want to see it grow and be something to be proud of - not a grubby little bookmakers sideshow appealing to one man and his dog, stag and hen do's and connections who have to play fast and loose with the handicapping system to make ends meet

If losing Kempton and its (95% low grade output) is a step towards putting *quality* racing on the agenda, then bring it on!

But we are not losing the King George are we?

if the Cheltenham Gold Cup was run at Ascot , or the Derby run at Newmarket would you say they were not lost ???

Horse Racing can only go down hill ( viewing wise )

There ain't many under 30s talking about Horseracing bar the National

They might all go on ladies day with their Gals with cheap suits on but i don't think they bet much

They pose for pictures with cheap champagne and load them on social media acting like Celebs

The Grand National wouldn't be the same race if it were to be run elsewhere and that's the same for the King George. You can't carry all that history to another course and call it the same race.

You think tennis fans would be happy if they moved the Grand Slam to Liverpool

Bad news but I doubt that it will go ahead. The ferrets will find some tasty tidbits in this story I feel.

Horse racing has never had any decent marketing behind it.

Compare with Sky and even the BBC with football.

Takes too much time and effort to learn anything about it.

I posted this on the horse racing forum yesterday. 

Nicky Henderson's comments from Sporting Life -

"Henderson told Press Association Sport: "It's a lot to digest, obviously. It's a massive subject and a massive deal.

"But I'm afraid, when it comes down to it, Kempton is a track National Hunt racing cannot afford to lose.

"We fought this battle once before and we won.

"They were talking about having the all-weather track and then Flat racing on the turf and doing away with the National Hunt.

"Thankfully we saw that little skirmish off and I think it's worked very well, with the all-weather and the jumps track side by side.

"It will be a very sad day if we lose it and I fear it will be a nail in the National Hunt coffin."

"Kempton is unique, predominantly because of the ground," said Henderson.

"I had two or three horses that are due to run at Kempton this weekend that couldn't have run at Sandown last weekend, purely because of the ground.

"I know the two tracks are only five miles apart, but they are completely different and you need that variety.

"If you have a good-ground horse you go to Kempton, if you have a horse that wants softer ground and a stiff track you go to Sandown. It's simple.

"We have three metropolitan tracks - Kempton, Sandown and Ascot - and from my point of view, Kempton is the number one, and the ground is crux of it.

"The King George isn't the same race at Sandown and running the Christmas Hurdle there is a waste of space.

"If you want to run over a stiff two miles in soft ground, there are plenty of races for that.

"Sandown can't take that amount of racing. They (the Jockey Club) will tell you it can, but it can't, we all know that.

"Kempton is a very good racecourse, they provide the safest ground and we don't want to be without it."

Racing is in decline and London is short of housing.  Makes perfect sense.  Same with Wimbledon dog track.  Shame, but tastes change.  The age of internet gambling, and probably the national lottery, is killing it off and it needs to downsize.  The plain truth is the sport can't stand on it's own merits as a mainstream sport without the attached gambling.  It's a fun and exciting sport with gambling but it's uninteresting without it, so with other forms of gambling more freely available, and now firmly established, it's inevitable that the sport will suffer.

There's a delusion amongst racing folk that the sport has been mismanaged and the appeal of the sport is bigger than it is.  I suspect the reality is they are doing a good job marketing the sport, but the cards are stacked against them.  There's nothing the sport can do about other forms of gambling.

One way that racing has shot themselves in the foot is by penalising those horses that have done well in previous GNs. Now that is plain crazy.  The best thing that can happen to racing is that a horse can retain it, and the Jockey Club, in their wisdom decide to penalise horses to make it harder.  There should be a massive cash incentive for a dual winner.

Doing away with the handicap system would spoil my enjoyment of the sport.

akabula I'm not saying doing away with the hcap system for the race, I'm saying use the official hcap ratings for the race, rather than special added weight allowances for previous winners and placed horses.  Give the first four home guaranteed entry next year should they want it too, running off their official hcap mark or 10 stone, whichever is the heavier ... to save them getting balloted out.

If you give them a million pound bonus, that's added publicity, plus gives the connections added incentive to try and win it again.

Red Rum is still the most famous horse in the country.

rogerthebutler 11 Jan 17 14:25 Joined: 01 Mar 03 | Topic/replies: 12,630 | Blogger: rogerthebutler's blog
No one wants to hear it, no matter that it's the truth.

There is an over-supply in racing.

Foals, races, racedays and racecourses. Tipsters and Cheltenham Preview nights.

It is an unsustainable, low-grade (predominantly) bloated behemoth, which somehow thinks it should be shielded from commercial realities. Whole swathes of our heavy engineering industry have been decimated, being forced to turn to quality and scarcity rather than packing it high and selling it cheap, but racing bumbles on, thinking it is immune from real world economics.

I love the sport and I love its people....its characters...its history and sense of chivalry and connection to something life-affirming and worthwhile.

I love these things with my life, which is why I want to see it grow and be something to be proud of - not a grubby little bookmakers sideshow appealing to one man and his dog, stag and hen do's and connections who have to play fast and loose with the handicapping system to make ends meet

If losing Kempton and its (95% low grade output) is a step towards putting *quality* racing on the agenda, then bring it on!

Absolutely spot-on roger...and there was me thinking i was the only one that thought the same...after the financial woes of 2008, i can't think of any other industry that didn't cut its cloth accordingly...not racing, it just carried on regardless as though market forces were of no concern...the penny may finally be dropping

bad, but inevitable