Course Characteristics

The Old Course at Cheltenham, which is used on the first two days of the Cheltenham Festival, is a left-handed, galloping, undulating, testing oval, approximately a mile and a half around. There are ten, stiff fences, or eight flights of hurdles, per circuit.

The New Course, which is used on the last two days of the Festival, shares the same characteristics as the Old Course, but is slightly longer. The stiffness of the fences aside, the conventional courses at Cheltenham are defined by their testing nature and the stiff, uphill climb from the final fence to the winning post, which constitutes the famous Cheltenham hill.

The Cross Country Course, which is used for just three races a year, is laid out in the centre of the conventional courses and features an eclectic mixture of banks, ditches and rails.

Track Facts

Golden Miller won the Cheltenham Gold Cup five years running between 1932 and 1936. More recently, Cottage Rake (1948, 1949 and 1950), Arkle (1964, 1965 and 1966) and Best Mate (2002, 2003 and 2004) all won the Blue Riband event in three consecutive years.

In 1983, former trainer Michael Dickinson saddled Bregawn, Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck and Ashleigh House to fill the first five places in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Dawn Run, who won the Champion Hurdle in 1984 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1986, is the only horse in history to win both races. Norton’s Coin, bred, owned and trained by Welsh farmer Sirrell Griffiths, was the longest-priced winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, at 100/1, in 1990. Much like followers of football tips , there’s always an angle to approach from or expertise (AI or otherwise nowadays!) to tap into that can reel in a big odds winner.

Elsewhere, the United States of America, which is 127% bigger than Australia, by area, but 1,291% more populous, according to Worldata.info, is home to over 300 racecourses. The three most famous are probably Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, Pimlico in Maryland, Baltimore and Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, which respectively stage the three ‘Triple Crown’ races, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

In Europe, thoroughbred horse racing in France takes place on 140 different racecourses. Most of the important races concentrated on those in, and around, Paris, namely Longchamp, home of the most valuable race in Europe, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in the Bois de Boulogne, nearby Saint-Cloud and Chantilly, in Oise, 30 miles or north of the city centre. That said, Hippodrome Deauville-La Touques, on the coast of Normandy, in northern France, hosts half a dozen Group 1 races each year and is the only racecourse outside the capital to stage races at the highest level.

Closer to home, in the British Isles, there are 59 racecourses on the British mainland – 51 in England, five in Scotland and three in Wales – two in Northern Ireland and 25 in the Republic of Ireland. In fact, the Republic of Ireland has one racecourse for every 200,000 inhabitants, approximately, which is the highest number per capita of any country.

Race meetings at Lansdown, though, remained irregular and ceased altogther between 1796 and 1811, with Napolean Bonparte, who came to power in 1799, attempting to wage ecomic warfare against the British Empire and, indeed, threatening to invade Britain itself, during the Napoleonic Wars. When racing resumed, it was still anything but a regular occurence, with just one, two-day meeting staged annually in May. The year 1823 saw the inauguration of the Somersetshire Stakes, which become the feature race of the day and was, at one point, a recognised trial for the Derby. Won by Tudor Minstrel – the joint-third highest-rated racehorse in the history of Timeform – in 1947, the race was eventually discontinued in 1998, but resurrected in 2011, as part of bicentennial celebrations.

In 1831, the Bath Racecourse was moved to its current location, 780 feet above sea level on the Lansdown Plateau, which gave it the distinction of being the highest Flat racing venue in the country, which it remains to this day. Indeed, of all the racecourses in the United Kingdom, only Exeter and Hexham, at heights of 850 and 800 feet above sea level, respectively, are higher than Bath.

Following the end of World War I, during which racing ceased, the Lansdown Estate changed hands, leading to speculation about the continued success of Bath Racecourse. However, erstwhile directors of the Newbury Racecourse Company, formed in 1904, had faith in the facility and banded together to buy it, at public auction, leading to the incorporation of the Bath Racecourse Company in 1919. Thus, racing at Bath continued throughout the interwar years, but during World War II the course became an airfield for the Royal Air Force (RAF), named RAF North Stoke.

In 1953, Bath Raceourse was the scene of the infamous ‘Francasal Affair’, in which a gang of fraudsters attempted to swindle bookmakers out of £60,000, or nearly £1.4 million by modern standards, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data. The plot essentially involved substituting a filly named Francasal with a useful French horse named Santa Amaro, cutting the telephone lines to the racecourse, to prevent communication between on-course and off-course bookmakers, and heavily backing the ‘ringer’ at odds of 10/1. Subsequent investigations by the General Post Office (GPO) and the police led to the arrest of five men, who were tried, twice, at the Old Bailey and four of whom were convicted and jailed for conspiracy to defraud.

Nowadays, Bath Racecourse is part of Arena Racing Company (ARC), who, as Northern Racing, acquired the property in 2000. In 2015/16 ARC funded a multi-million-pound redevelopment of the racecourse infrastructure and facilities, thereby creating a modern venue, which, nonetheless reflects the history and heritage of the site. The principal race – and, indeed, the only Pattern race of the year – at Bath is the Listed Lansdown Fillies’ Stakes, inaugurated in 1999 and run annually, over 5 furlongs and 10 yards, in April. Perhaps the most notable winner was Cassandra Go, trained by Geoff Wragg, who supplemented her victory in 2000 by winning both the Temple Stakes at Sandown Park and the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot the following season.

Windsor Racecourse, a.k.a. Royal Windsor Racecourse, due to the close proximity of Windsor Castle, was established on its current site, in Rays Meadow, by John Frail of Shrewsbury (who also found fame as a Conservative party agent) in 1866. National Hunt racing first took place shortly afterwards and continued on a regular basis until 1998. Thereafter, a number of fixtures were staged, temporarily, during the multimillion pound redevelopment of Ascot in 2004 and 2005. In fact, the last such fixture took place on December 16, 2005 and the final race that day was the Q Equine Ltd Handicap Hurdle, won by Acambo, trained by Martin Pipe and ridden by Timmy Murphy.

Confirmation of regularly scheduled National Hunt fixtures returning to the Berkshire track was well received by six-time champion trainer Nicky Henderson. He told the ‘Racing Post’, ‘It’s seriously good news for National Hunt racing. You’re talking to someone who is rather antiquated and can remember when jumping used to take place there. There probably aren’t many of us left!’

A right-handed, practically flat course, Kempton Park was established in 1878, by the recently-incorporated Kempton Park Race Course Company Limited. The company actually had seven original shareholders, but just one of them, Samuel Henry Hyde, is generally considered the founding father of the racecourse. The first meeting at Kempton Park was held on July 18, 1878.

Sandown Park, on the other hand, is situated on Portsmouth Road in Esher, Surrey, approximately six miles southeast of Kempton Park and approximately 17 miles southwest of the City of London. Nowadays, Sandown is renowned as the home of the Coral-Eclipse, which was inaugurated in 1886, at the time under the auspices of Leopold de Rothschild, and the Bet365 Gold Cup, formerly the Whitbread Gold Cup, which was established in 1957.

An essentially galloping course, with a stiff uphill finish, Sandown had the distinction of being the first modern, purpose-built racecourse in the country and the first to charge an admission fee (of half a crown, or 2/6, which is the equivalent of approximately £8 in modern terms). Under the auspices of Sir Wilford Brett, the brother of Sir William Brett (later Viscount Esher), and brothers Owen and Hwfa Williams, Sandown Park was developed on farmland attached to Sandown House. The first race meeting at the venue took place on April 22, 1875.

The post Which racecourse was established earlier, Kempton Park or Sandown Park? first appeared on Racecourses.]]> https://www.racecourses.net/churchill-downs-the-crown-jewel-of-horse-racing-history/ Mon, 30 Jun 2025 09:43:44 +0000 https://www.racecourses.net/?p=679 For over a century, one name has stood above all others in the world of horse racing: Churchill Downs. This iconic racetrack, located in Louisville, Kentucky, has become synonymous with the sport of kings and has played host to some of the most thrilling moments in equestrian history. In this article, we’ll explore the rich […]

Indeed, Hambleton was, in its heyday, arguably the best racecourse in the country and received royal patronage, from Queen Anne, until her death in 1714. The Queen Anne Cup – later retitled His Majesty’s Gold Cup, following the accession of King George I in 1714 – was contested by horses aged five years and upwards, at level weights, of 10 stone, over a four-mile circuit and was the principal race of the year at Hambledon Racecourse. Ultimately, though, the location of Hambleton Racecourse and its general inaccessibility proved its undoing; the final meeting took place during the summer of 1811. Thereafter, the course became, and still is, a training ground, nowadays utilised by local trainers Kevin Ryan and Bryan Smart.

To modern racing enthusiasts, the name ‘Hambleton’ is probably most familiar from the title of the Hambleton Cup Handicap, which is run over an extended mile and a half on ‘Ladies Day’ at Thirsk in September. Nowadays, the Hambleton Cup is a run-of-the-mill, 0-85 affair, but has been run at Thirsk since the course was established in 1855 and its history dates back to 1714 at Hambleton Racecourse, from whence it takes its name; it is, in fact, one of the oldest races in the country.

As far as the other letters are concerned, rather unhelpfully, the Italian and Russian words for ‘racecourse’ are ‘ippodromo’ and ‘ippodrom’, respectively, both of which, of course, begin with I. More specifically, though, Inverness Raceway is a harness racing track on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, while the Inner Mongolia Racecourse in Hohhot, China is the largest racecourse in Asia, for all that gambling on horse racing has been illegal on mainland China since 1949. The letter J has a few more takers, worldwide, including Jydsk Væddeløbsbane or, in English, ‘Jutland Racecourse’, in Aarhus, Denmark, Jokimaa, in Lahti, Finland, Jarlsberg Travbane in Tønsberg, Norway, Jägersro Galopp in Malmö, Sweden and Jebel Ali Racecourse in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, to name a handful.

Racecourses beginning with V are even more plentiful, it seems. The Hippodrome de Vincennes, in Vincennes, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, Hippodrome de Viseo, in Zonza, on the island of Corsica, and Hippodrome des Vignetta in Ajaccio, also on Corsica, are just three of those on French soil. Further afield, Hipodromo de Valencia, in Valenica, Venezuela, is one of three major horse racing venues in the country, while Valparaiso Sporting in Viña del Mar, Chile is the home of the Chilean Derby. Racecourses beginning with Z, though, seem to be a real rarity; Zagrebački Hipodrom, or ‘Zagreb Hippodrome’, in the Croatian capital, appears to be the sole example.

Interestingly, all six racecourses are in England, specifically Northern England, with two in Cumbria, two in North Yorkshire, one in West Yorkshire and one in South Yorkshire. If you wish to prolong the agony of your chosen ‘victim’ with further clues, just one of them is exclusively a National Hunt racecourse and just one of them, but not the same one, is right-handed; two are exclusively Flat courses and three operate under both codes. Alphabetically, which you may find the easiest way to remember them, the racecourses in question are Carlisle, which is the only right-handed course, Cartmel, which is the only exclusively National Hunt course, Catterick, Doncaster, Pontefract and Redcar.

As a footnote, if you need a ‘double or quits’ question of similar ilk, you might like to know that there are four British racecourses whose names contain none of the letters A, E, R and C. Again, in alphabetical order, they are Goodwood, Huntingdon, Ludlow and Plumpton. If you want to offer a ‘teaser’ or two about this quartet, Goodwood stages only Flat racing, while the other three stage only National Hunt racing; Plumpton is the only one that is left-handed.

Several sources, including a certain free online encyclopedia, report that the last National Hunt fixture was staged at Wolverhampton in 1993, but such sources are either out-of-date or, perish the thought, just plain wrong. After a four-year hiatus, National Hunt racing returned to Dunstall Park on May 11, 1997, with the running of the aptly-titled ‘Wolverhampton’s Jumping Again Novices’ Chase’ and continued, sporadically, for the next five seasons. The good thing about the Internet is that you can did in the detail, as well as play jokaroom casino and in your downtime.

The last winner over obstacles was, in fact, the eight-year-old Light Programme, trained locally by Tony Forbes and ridden by unheralded jockey Eugene Husband, who, on July 15, 2002, sprang a 25/1 surprise, from 4lb out of the handicap proper, in the Ladbrokes ‘Place Bet Here’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle, over two miles. The winner was originally owned by Khaled Abdullah and had won for Sir Henry Cecil, and newly-appointed stable jockey Kieren Fallon, as a three-year-old, but had failed to trouble the judge in five previous starts, spread over three seasons, under National Hunt rules.