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The Leopard
11 Jan 17 12:40
Joined:
Date Joined: 05 Apr 06
| Topic/replies: 21,496 | Blogger: The Leopard's blog
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Pause • Switch to Standard View Kempton Park closure, good or bad?
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Report rogerthebutler • January 11, 2017 2:37 PM GMT
Just the rather dull, featureless track it's currently staged at, that attracts anything that could reasonably be called a crowd on 2-3 racedays a year.
Report sixtwosix • January 11, 2017 2:37 PM GMT
if the Cheltenham Gold Cup was run at Ascot , or the Derby run at Newmarket would you say they were not lost ???
Report rogerthebutler • January 11, 2017 2:54 PM GMT
Fair point - I'll think up a blinding answer to that, probably in about April Grin
Report TheChaser • January 11, 2017 2:56 PM GMT
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
Report TheChaser • January 11, 2017 2:56 PM GMT
Grand National moving to Newcastle would be great
Report Make my hay • January 11, 2017 3:09 PM GMT
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.
Report SlippyBlue • January 11, 2017 3:31 PM GMT
I agree with you Make my hay, the King George run at another track just doesn't cut it for me. Not only horse racing, the greyhound Derby has been given to Towcester this year due to the imminent closure of Wimbledon. Towcester is a totally inappropriate venue for the sports blue ribbon event.
Report TheChaser • January 11, 2017 3:57 PM GMT
You think tennis fans would be happy if they moved the Grand Slam to Liverpool
Report donny osmond • January 11, 2017 4:00 PM GMT
greyhound derby moved from wimbledon, lol

not its home though is it , and now accepted .....
Report dunlaying • January 11, 2017 4:07 PM GMT
Bad news but I doubt that it will go ahead. The ferrets will find some tasty tidbits in this story I feel.
Report rogerthebutler • January 11, 2017 5:50 PM GMT

Jan 11, 2017 -- 8:56AM, TheChaser wrote:


Horse Racing can only go down hill ( viewing wise )There ain't many under 30s talking about Horseracing bar the NationalThey might all go on ladies day with their Gals with cheap suits on but i don't think they bet muchThey pose for pictures with cheap champagne and load them on social media acting like Celebs


Racing has pursued the stag and hen do market, thus alienating it's core support and also changing the very essence of the racegoing experience (charm and gallantry if that's not too up itself).

Don't be surprised if the pi$$-head demographic shows very little loyalty or interest in TV coverage of the gee-gees on a Saturday, when they're still in bed recovering from Friday night.

In the short term, any move of the King George away from Kempton would be met with hostility; that's what racing folk do when confronted with change

Report Jack Hacksaw • January 11, 2017 8:31 PM GMT
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.
Report donny osmond • January 11, 2017 8:37 PM GMT
horse racing was on bbc and itv every weekend

how did they blow it ?
Report Makybe_Diva • January 11, 2017 8:40 PM GMT
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."
Report Makybe_Diva • January 11, 2017 8:42 PM GMT
Christmas won't be the same without racing from Kempton Park on Boxing Day Sad
Report CLYDEBANK29 • January 11, 2017 9:27 PM GMT
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.
Report bongo • January 11, 2017 9:38 PM GMT
I like the approach of Happy Valley and Sha Tin to the housing shortage which is:
1) keep the tracks
2) no height restrictions on surrounding buildings

Outside of zone 1-2, Brits just don't seem to build upwards. Thanks a bunch Clement Attlee, you've just contributed to wrecking a british racing tradition from beyond the grave. We should take your Town and Country Planning Act ( 1947 ), wipe our arses with it, and bury it with you.
Report CLYDEBANK29 • January 11, 2017 9:44 PM GMT
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.
Report CLYDEBANK29 • January 11, 2017 9:46 PM GMT
If you win it a second time you should get a million pound bonus.
Report akabula • January 11, 2017 10:51 PM GMT
Doing away with the handicap system would spoil my enjoyment of the sport.
Report STATSMAN • January 11, 2017 10:54 PM GMT
Hmm!

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/spelthorne-borough-council-leader-blasts-11268336
Report CLYDEBANK29 • January 11, 2017 11:53 PM GMT
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.
Report akabula • January 12, 2017 12:00 AM GMT
Ah right I see what you mean now.
Need to do something as younger people nowadays more interested in sports betting than the horses.
Report gibs • January 12, 2017 12:06 AM GMT
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
Report CLYDEBANK29 • January 12, 2017 12:23 AM GMT
What they need is some kind of addictive computer game involving the Grand National brand, Clash of Stables instead of Clash of Clans.  An interesting App for the race itself.
Report ebulGery • January 12, 2017 12:36 AM GMT
bad, but inevitable
Report Johnny_Mustang • January 12, 2017 8:54 AM GMT
A very easy decision and the JC should be applauded for making it.

What we in London need is extra space for quality housing. What we do not need is a behemoth of a racetrack, desperately clinging on to its glory days, treating racegoers and lovers of horseracing with disdain by putting on some of the lowest-grade racing in the country. Absolute dirge.
Report Johnny_Mustang • January 12, 2017 9:05 AM GMT
In what way am I 'beaten down'? This is the greatest city in the world.
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 9:08 AM GMT
very bad news, especially if they build houses on it
Report wildmanfromborneo • January 12, 2017 9:11 AM GMT
It was.
Your beaten down because you didnt defend your city,ye cravenly handed it over.

Are there any Cockneys left.
Are there any English people left.

A Capital city where the indigenous people have been forced out is a rarity and a disaster.
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 9:17 AM GMT
it's ie mugs like mustang that will destroy this country, the rest of the world stands back and laughs at him and people like him. They do not respect English people like that, they despise them and are right to do so
Report Johnny_Mustang • January 12, 2017 9:19 AM GMT
Not sure what your point is:

Are there any Cockneys left. Umm, yes. Me.
Are there any English people left. As above.

Next?
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 9:22 AM GMT
Do not trust the working class like mustang, say a. little prayer for them they are too dumb to do so
Report wildmanfromborneo • January 12, 2017 9:29 AM GMT
How many children have you got Johnny ?
How many wives have you got Johnny ?
What area of London do you live in ?
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 9:34 AM GMT
Ron Russian blames the closure on M'sLaugh
Report Johnny_Mustang • January 12, 2017 9:40 AM GMT
How many children have you got Johnny ? 1
How many wives have you got Johnny ? 1
What area of London do you live in ? The best part - West London.
Report TheChaser • January 12, 2017 9:44 AM GMT
Is this you JM
$$$$$$

http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/633232/stream_img.jpg
Report Johnny_Mustang • January 12, 2017 9:46 AM GMT
Nah. My sofa's brown leather.
Report TheChaser • January 12, 2017 9:49 AM GMT
Nice Grin
Report wildmanfromborneo • January 12, 2017 9:58 AM GMT
One child is not enough Johnny.

The people needing the housing will have on average five or six kids,some will have up to four wives.
So one of these enriching gentleman will be outbreeding you by a ratio of at least 25 to 1 and will need at least four of these new Kempton houses.

Proving once again that the much missed Ron Russian was right.
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 10:02 AM GMT
Never in my life have I seen so many idiots on a forum...
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 10:04 AM GMT
well said breedingmad
Report TheChaser • January 12, 2017 10:09 AM GMT
Are they gonna be council housing ?
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 10:17 AM GMT
well there are millions of people in London needing council housing, they have to live somewhere
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 10:21 AM GMT
who will pay for it ?   I don't know
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 10:25 AM GMT
why do all these poor people have to live in London ?
I don't know, maybe it's to punish them for being poor
Report TheChaser • January 12, 2017 10:40 AM GMT
Are these planned houses council or houses to buy ?
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 10:42 AM GMT
Awful idea.

Is this one of those 'benefits' of mass immigration?
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 10:45 AM GMT
Blaming immigration for property development whatever next ....
Report STUDYFORM • January 12, 2017 11:28 AM GMT
Immigration is blamed for everything right now. Especially on here. It's replaced workshy scroungers as the route cause of everything, until the government want to find their next scapegoat.
Yet another thread hijacked for the cause.

On topic. Much of the ruination of the horseracing industry lies at the feet of the BHB and the obnoxious Savill.
It priced itself out of the market. Self importance, loss of support from the media, cost to bookmakers and the general desire to charge fortunes for a product because it was 'commercially right'.
Horseracing was fine for many years, until it largely ostracised itself via the quest for more money.
Tracks being sold to big companies, the loss of people interested in the sport, the rise of marketing.

This is the fallout, continuing.
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 11:36 AM GMT
The death of horse races being shown in pubs due to the expansion of Spoons pubs
the failure of courses to throw away the class structure and move with the times,
the monotony of the sport due to all weather racing.
Report donny osmond • January 12, 2017 11:49 AM GMT
betfair must play some part in the decline of racing for opening so many eyes to
the value being offered from bookmakers

bookmakers replied by changing their product to cartoon stuff and machines

ive never seen a price change on the cartoon stuff...why is that ? surely if
a horse is backed enough they cut price to divert bets elsewhere. how much do
they take on an average cartoon race ?

even the worst all weather dross produces numerous price changes
Report Jack Hacksaw • January 12, 2017 12:32 PM GMT
Presumably they buy the cartoons from another company who also show the prices so they would not be able to alter them.

I can't imagine anyone bets more than 50p on these and I think even High Street bookies would be able to stand the odd loss on a race.
Report donny osmond • January 12, 2017 12:42 PM GMT
some blokes punting 100 quid a pop on the machines, what if one
of them, or a few of them decided to hit the cartoon racing scene

it looks like it hasnt happened but i guess cartoon racing doesnt
float their boat
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 12:47 PM GMT
I think I'll go in this afternoon and place some bets on the cartoon racing using
monopoly money, when they tell me it's not real money I'll tell them it's not real
racing...
Report donny osmond • January 12, 2017 12:50 PM GMT
i'm surprised the bookies dont issue their own currencies
so punters can play for fun
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 12:50 PM GMT
Blaming immigration for property development whatever next ....


The population of London grew at twice the rate of the UK as a whole between 2011 and 2015, and could reach almost 10 million by the middle of next decade, official figures show.

In mid-2011, the population of the city stood at 8.2 million, but over four years it increased by 469,000 to just under 8.7 million, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The arrival of almost 200,000 people from overseas each year, and an average of 130,000 births a year drove the city’s growth, and offset the high numbers leaving the city for other countries and the rest of the UK.



Even the Guardian knows it.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/12/london-population-growth-twice-that-of-uk-official-figures-show
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 12:55 PM GMT
Without property development thousands of jobs would be at risk are you after a stagnant economy with no growth..
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 1:00 PM GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/21/tens-thousands-london-homes-...
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 1:01 PM GMT
The problem with you Beeeding mad is that you have no tipping point.
You want an open door to the entire world but have no understanding of congestion. Do the current residents of Sunbury welcome further congestion?

Even when there is a knock on effect to greenbelt areas you will see no harm to your country.
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 1:02 PM GMT
Almost 57,000 homes in London stand empty, according to the charity Empty Homes. Think of what that must feel like to Londoners struggling to access homes they need, as so many stand boarded up – often attracting antisocial behaviour and blighting communities.
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 1:12 PM GMT
They are not all boarded up, many of these vacant houses are for buy-to-leave purposes. This data will have come from council tax figures.
The owners of these houses may be tied up in probate issues for example. There are many reasons why know one lives in them.
The boarded up ones will be in ghetto type areas, surely if the choice was to live there or relocate away from London, relocation would be the best option.
Report donny osmond • January 12, 2017 1:16 PM GMT
i thought people were wanting to live in london not locate away from london
and if they do locate away then boarding up their old gaff seems a tad wasteful
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 1:19 PM GMT
I dint think kempton should be sold and houses given over to people who may or may not be English.
they might not even like horse racing and those are not the sort of people we should be encouraging
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 1:22 PM GMT
If they have never been to kempton, they don't deserve to live there, imo
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 1:23 PM GMT
No donny, my point being that many of those houses boarded up are perhaps not fit for purpose and if it was a choice to live in one of thoe or relocate away from London, then relocation could be the favourable option.

That was my point.
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 1:24 PM GMT
How selfish to want to destroy part of England's history just to make money, and house more people. we have too many people in London as it is
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 1:24 PM GMT
Bring the Pilgrim Fathers back..
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 1:25 PM GMT
there were more people living in London before the war and they got along pretty well without this vandalism
Report donny osmond • January 12, 2017 1:25 PM GMT
even a boarded up property will sell

there are loads of folk waiting to snap these up
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 1:27 PM GMT
Who owns them Donny?
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 1:28 PM GMT
too many single mothers in London, they have to live somewhere
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 1:30 PM GMT
Let's all turn the clock back to the 1920's and  1930's when everything was pleasant and nice...
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 1:31 PM GMT
Is there anyone you can't blame?
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 1:31 PM GMT
if there were more people in London before the war than now, why have we been building all these houses ?
I don't know.
Report donny osmond • January 12, 2017 1:32 PM GMT
if they dont know who owns them that is a different matter, of course

i thought you were referring to folk choosing to board up and relocate ...
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 1:39 PM GMT
No Donny, i was supposing it better to leave London than see a boarded up house in a ghetto as a possible home.

I would say buy-to-leave covers a good percentage, inheritance of property via probate can take a long time to sort out, run down properties previously rented and the owners are not wanting to sell and can't afford to repair.
Report donny osmond • January 12, 2017 1:42 PM GMT
i think any boarded up home would be welcomed and easily fixed

but accept the legal minefields attached make it impossible
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 1:49 PM GMT
if there were more people in London before the war than now, why have we been building all these houses ?


We have caught up again haven't we? expected to surpass pre war figures.

Before the war there were large native families living under one roof. Maybe a family of 10 in one house. Then came the war with evacuations of the children, conscriptions etc.

Now we have broken family's, one family spit into two, student accommodation etc.
Report Breedingmad • January 12, 2017 1:50 PM GMT
In Holland they have a law preventing property becoming vacant for any significant length of time
possibly 6 months but I forget exactly.
Report lfc1971 • January 12, 2017 1:53 PM GMT
if a person owns a property they have the right to leave it vacant, it has nothing to do with anyone else
Report ZenMaster • January 12, 2017 2:11 PM GMT
This was an Amsterdam council proposal wasn't it BM? did they implement it.

THey were going to fine home owners for leaving a property vacant for longer than 6 months without a legitimate excuse.

Bleeding barmy, but they do eat horses.
Report TheChaser • January 12, 2017 6:22 PM GMT
How many people on the dole are in jail and the council are still paying for their homes.Find that number someone but i wouldn't bank on finding it.
Report STUDYFORM • January 12, 2017 6:29 PM GMT

Jan 12, 2017 -- 7:49AM, ZenMaster wrote:


if there were more people in London before the war than now, why have we been building all these houses ?We have caught up again haven't we? expected to surpass pre war figures. Before the war there were large native families living under one roof. Maybe a family of 10 in one house. Then came the war with evacuations of the children, conscriptions etc.Now we have broken family's, one family spit into two, student accommodation etc.


houses were bigger?

Report TheChaser • January 12, 2017 6:49 PM GMT
Where i stay they only build 2 bedroom council houses well flats little culd de sacs with 2 up 2 down.

Why not just build a few tower blocks with modern building skills im sure they could make them look ok and house a lot more than new streets with 10-20 houses in them.
Report kenny mann • January 13, 2017 9:14 AM GMT
The population of London had not soared at all, the extra numbers come from changing the names of places to ‘London Boroughs’

When certain places close to London go from half decent to sh*tholes, the rest of the county don’t want house prices to drop for that area, so they get the sh*thole moved to London, where prices mean f*ck all, by creating 16 new London Boroughs.

The electoral register shows:


The voting population of the 17 boroughs that are actually in LONDON is 2,565, 481

The voting population of the other 16 boroughs that make up GREATER LONDON is 2,794,602

The other 16 boroughs came about with the death of Middlesex, and the invention of ‘London Boroughs’ that were on the fringe, but actually in the home counties.

Barking and all points east were in Essex, now, right out to Hornchurch, they are classed as “east London“

Croydon was in Surrey, now it’s in “south west London“

Bromley was in Kent, now it’s in “south east London“

Enfield was in Middlesex, now it’s in “north London”

Proper east London only has 3 Boroughs, Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets, with 507,500 voters.

Add the three “make out” London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering and the population of voters goes up another 488,690 to 996,190

============================================

The left are STILL screaming that the ‘LEAVE’ vote back on that wonderful night in June when ’ONLY 37%’ of voters wanted out, wasn’t enough.

I find this odd because figures show quite clearly that Sadiq Khan was elected to be Mayor of London with only 21.43% of the total London electorate over all 33 Boroughs,

Do you recall the screams of ’THAT’S NOT ENOUGH’ from the loony left?

No, neither do I.

Strange that.
Report Breedingmad • January 13, 2017 9:40 AM GMT
The London Mayoral elections have a supplementary voting system so your comparison is misleading.
Report zorrostrikes • January 14, 2017 12:25 AM GMT
bad - after the rapture, there will be a lot of empty houses. property will become abundant, no need for more housing.
Report bodil • January 14, 2017 2:01 AM GMT
Bad.

It wont happen - in our lifetime.

Greedy people giving money to other greedy people so they and other greedy people can make money.  I see Simon Bazalgette is the cousin of Peter Bazalgette, of whom the loathsome slug Stephen Fry said 'his great grandfather once pumped **** out of our homes, but he now pumps it back in again' (owner of the Big Brother Co. etc).

Eh.
Report bodil • January 14, 2017 2:15 AM GMT
Kempton always was a working man's track. Joe Gormley as director?  That would not have happened under the Jockey Club. I once took a job in Sunbury because the course was there.

Concrete, brick and tarmac - and an endless flow of people.  Is that your choice?  Hell no.
Report ZenMaster • January 14, 2017 11:27 AM GMT
The people of Sunbury must be looking forward to total gridlock in rush hour.
No doubt those that can move away from London will, who would want to live there?
Report The Leopard • January 14, 2017 11:40 AM GMT
The home will all be bought by Qataris, Chinese and Russians, then rented out if they can be bothered
Report rogerthebutler • January 14, 2017 8:52 PM GMT
Anyone know what the crowd was there today?

I'm assuming it was chocca, what with all these Kempton lovers that have suddenly sprung up out of nowhere, though I thought the going would be softer with all the Crocodile tears being cried.
Report lordnoise • January 14, 2017 10:15 PM GMT
The racing writer of the year Tom Kerr savages the Jockey Club and grasping developers in the RP ...

YOU CAN almost imagine how the grandees on the Jockey Club board convinced themselves it was a good idea to sell off one of the sport's most treasured racecourses for housing.

You can picture them sitting there, perhaps in the sumptuous Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket, the walls lined with priceless artwork, as one by one they all agreed there was simply nothing else for it, the sport needed £100 million more than it needed historic Kempton. The track had to go. For the good of racing, you understand.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Never in my years of following racing have I seen a more misguided, crude, treacherous act of vandalism, and all perpetrated by the so-called guardians of British racing.

This is gamekeeper turned poacher and the poacher has turned up at the estate with a barrel of napalm to burn the place to the ground. Each and every person associated with the decision should hang their heads in shame. How can they claim this is for the good of the sport?

The Jockey Club has framed this decision as a commercial imperative, but the financial case for closing Kempton is far from being made. It would provide £100m, maybe more, towards £500m of planned investment over the next ten years, but the Jockey Club has failed to adequately explain why it is essential to pop Kempton on the table like a poker player chucking the wife's car keys into the pot.

An all-weather track will be built in Newmarket and a plan to "transform" Sandown has been announced. If you think that is an equitable swap you're more than likely drinking your breakfast coffee in Suffolk, but what this is really about is a racecourse group unable to carry out its investment plans without cashing in one of its most valuable and profitable assets. Some will see that as pragmatic business sense but many more as evidence of a group that has lost its way.

If we do accept that a sale of something is necessary, perhaps the Jockey Club could instead look to some of its considerable non-racecourse assets, which encompass 4,500 acres of land at Newmarket, 550 acres of land at Lambourn and 90 properties, including the aforementioned Jockey Club Rooms, which turned over just £1.24m in 2015.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, the art collection that adorns the Jockey Club Rooms alone is worth tens of millions of pounds.

That is an almost priceless piece of racing's heritage, just like Kempton, but unlike Kempton it is enjoyed principally by the rich, powerful and well-connected. The Jockey Club Rooms is a private members' club. Naturally, its art was never going to go. That's not how things work in this country.

£100m for Kempton is not even a deal too good to turn down. The racecourse is worth so much more alive than dead. It sits amid the largest urban conurbation in western Europe and perhaps the richest city in history.

That means it is an irresistible prize for property developers, who would pave over Hyde Park, turn the British Museum into a Westfield shopping centre and convert the Houses of Parliament to luxury flats if they could.

That desirable location should make Kempton, with its excellent transport links, one of the sport's most prized possessions. Clearly it is underperforming: the track, while profitable and heaving on its busiest days, is frequently half-deserted.

Yet I was there in 2010 among thousands of racegoers on a Wednesday night, lured to a winter all-weather meeting by free tickets. The atmosphere was tremendous, and is it not better to have several thousand eating, betting, drinking and - most crucially - enjoying racing, than several hundred paying for entry to a graveyard? Yet regular free nights were never trialled.

It seemed sometimes as if the Jockey Club were happy enough to let Kempton rake in the millions in media rights payments rather than worry too much why it wasn't appealing more to the people on its doorstep.

And as for those people: if Kempton goes, there will be just two racecourses inside the M25, an area home to around ten million.

'We must stand up and fight'

Meanwhile, the Jockey Club proposes building a third racecourse in Newmarket, population 20,000. What a way to promote the sport.

This is not just a commercial argument, however; it is an issue that brings to mind the hoary old Wilde quip about people who know the price of everything but the value of nothing. Racecourses are about more than just numbers, whatever philistine developers and detached racing grandees believe.

A city without sport, without culture, without green spaces and relief from the sheer scale and crush of the place, is no place worth living. This is why the leader of Spelthorne council, who recognises this fundamental truth, is in the bizarre position of being the protector of Kempton against the Jockey Club and its property developer allies.

Worst of all, though, is what this means for the King George VI Chase, arguably the fairest test of chasing excellence there is. This move will, in effect, kill it as a great race. Oh yes, transfer it to Sandown, where the similarities to Kempton extend as far as having grass and fences, and it will do all right: still draw a crowd, good horses, all that.

But Kempton, as Desert Orchid's owner said this week, is unique because it rewards brilliance. Without that distinction the King George's prestige will be diminished, and what was the best chase outside of Cheltenham will become just another Grade 1.

The significance of its history will fade and in times long hence no-one will speak of the epic King George legends of yesteryear, of Kauto Star and Dessie, because the track at which they achieved their feats of wonder is all Tarmac and Tescos, their towering achievements rendered perfectly irrelevant to the future.

Eventually, many years down the line, there will just be a few old men left to carry the flicker of Kempton's past with them, to recall roaring home a great champion in the crisp cold air of Boxing Day.

What will even be left of racing in that distant future? If a track as storied and profitable as Kempton, a track we all thought was in the safest of hands, cannot avoid redevelopment then where can?

I am a believer in the need for cities to develop, to build and rejuvenate, but Kempton is not a failing business ripe for the culling or some derelict antique being kept alive for sentimental reasons. It is profitable. It is functional. It is loved. It is important to a local community and to a nationwide sport.

Even at its worst, on those bleak winter evenings with a few hundred diehards huddled in the grandstand, it offers escapism from the vast city pressing at its gates. And at its best, on those frost-tinged Boxing Days when timeless heroes were forged, it was nothing short of glorious. For sporting, civic and historical reasons, it would be an appalling error to knock it down for overpriced houses.

Yet this is the way the country is going. In London alone we stand poised to lose our last greyhound stadium, 40 per cent of music venues have shut in the past decade, dozens of historic pubs close every year. Millwall are in effect being evicted from their ground.

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.


SIGN HERE IF YOU VALUE THE DIVERSITY OF BRITISH RACING :

https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-closure-of-kempton-park-racecourse
Report Steamship • January 14, 2017 10:38 PM GMT
I could accept it more if they had said we have to close and take the money but will invest in NH as that is the quality product from Kempton yet instead we are getting another A/W track for more dross racing.
Report kenny mann • January 16, 2017 1:32 AM GMT
Breedingmad 13 Jan 17 09:40
The London Mayoral elections have a supplementary voting system so your comparison is misleading.


London Mayoral Election

48.45% - turnout

51.55% - couldn’t be bothered

=======================

1,148,716 - Khan

909,755 - Goldsmith

150,763 - Berry

120,005 - Pidgeon

94,373 - Whittle

53,055 - Walker

37,007 - Galloway

31,372 - Golding

20,537 - Harris

13,325 - Furness

13,202 - Zylinski

4,941 - Love

===================

2,595,961 - total votes

2,763,122 - didn’t vote

==================

5,360,083 - Total electorate

1,148,716 - Khan

==================

21.43%
Report alun2005 • January 23, 2017 11:04 PM GMT
?
Report Magnusthepassenger • January 24, 2017 7:38 PM GMT
King George needs to be run on a similar course to Kempton, flat, sharp, right handed, in a capital city, and likely to provide decent ground at that time of year.
Only one to tick all the boxes is Musselburgh
Report The Leopard • January 24, 2017 7:53 PM GMT
Zylinski lives in Eaing..... I have been to his house…… very interesting place…… you can look it up online
Report Coachbuster • January 24, 2017 9:46 PM GMT
I often used to wonder why there were so many racecourses  and so few meetings
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