Whatever happened to Hurst Park Racecourse?

Whatever happened to Hurst Park Racecourse?  Hurst Park Racecourse was situated at Molesey Hurst, on the southern bank of the River Thames, near West Molesey, Surrey. In fact, it occupied more or less the same site as the old Hampton Racecourse, which staged its final meeting on June 15, 1887, after the Jockey Club refused to renew its licence. Notwithstanding its compact size, Hampton was an open, rather than enclosed, course, with no admission fee. The absence of this additional revenue scheme, coupled with the fact that just four days’ racing were staged annually, led to the deterioration of the course to the point that it was deemed unfit for racing by the governing body of the day.

Two years later, though, the site was purchased by the Hurst Park Club Syndicate Limited and developed as a closed course. Initially too small to be granted a licence for Flat racing, Hurst Park Racecourse staged its first National Hunt fixture on March 19, 1890. Thereafter, the course was extended onto nearby open country to create an oval, 11 furlongs in extent, and a straight, 7-furlong ‘Victoria Cup’ course, suitable for Flat racing. The first Flat fixture duly took place on March 25, 1891.

The Victoria Cup, itself, was a established, as a two-mile handicap, in 1901, before being run for the first time in its modern guise, over 7 furlongs, in 1908. The race was transferred to Ascot the year after the closure of Hurst Park in 1962, where it is still run annually in May and remains as fiercely competitive as ever. The Victoria Cup aside, the other principal race in the history of Hurst Park was the Triumph Hurdle, which was established in 1939 and has been a fixture of the Cheltenham Festival, staged annually in March, since 1968.

On the afternoon June 8, 1913, Emily Davison finally succumbed to the injuries she sustained when struck by Anmer, the horse owned by King George V, during the so-called ‘Suffragette Derby’ at Epsom four days earlier. That night, fellow activists Kitty Marion and Clara Giveen set fire to the main grandstand at Hurst Park, reducing it to ‘a fantastic medley of charred wood, twisted iron, broken and melted glass…’ and causing an estimated £10,000 worth of damage. The pair were tried and convicted at Surrey Assizes in Guildford the following month but, despite being sentenced to three years apiece in Holloway Prison, were released early under the 1913 1913 Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act, a.k.a. the Cat and Mouse Act, as the result of hunger striking.

Hurst Park survived, albeit that the resulting damage, coupled with the outbreak of World War I the following year, led to the cessation of racing at the venue 1916 amd 1918. It was a similar story during World War II, when Hurst Park became a military camp, housing British and American troops, between 1941 and 1945. Nevertheless, racing resumed after the cessation of hostilities and, in 1946, the Easter Monday meeting, transferred from nearby Kempton Park, featured a record attendance of 49,600, according to the Tote.

Indeed, the popularity of Hurst Park endured right up to its closure, following the final meeting on October 10, 1962. By that stage, though, the value of the land on which the racecourse stood, as a prime real estate location, far exceeded that as a sporting venue and the owners decided to cash in their investment. Much of the racecourse infrastructure disappeared; the turf, for example, was ripped up and relaid on the new National Hunt course at Ascot, which opened in 1965. However, the huge brick pillars on either side of Graburn Way, which originally supported large gates, still survive.

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