Kempton racecourse climbdown prompts tentative celebrations

Jubilation mixed with a measure of wary cynicism was the reaction on Wednesday when the Jockey Club announced a new proposal for Kempton Park, which would allow some homes to be built while allowing the site to continue as a racecourse. On the face of it, this amounts to a major climbdown, three years and a month after the Club expressed interest in closing the home of the King George VI Chase and building 3,000 new homes as a means of raising money to be used elsewhere.

Some caution is clearly appropriate because the original proposal remains live, for all that it looks increasingly like a lame duck after meeting much hostility, including from Spelthorne Borough Council. The Jockey Club has not published the detail of its new proposal and no map or plan is in the public domain but it is understood that it allows for up to 550 homes to be built.

Racing professionals welcomed the turn of events. “As long as racing continues as it is, that’s great news,” said Paul Nicholls, whose 11 successes in the King George is a trainer’s record. His fellow trainer Alan King added: “This is one racecourse we certainly did not want to be losing. I love the place. I’m very relieved it looks safe for the foreseeable future.” Meanwhile, Colin Hord of the Horserace Bettors Forum described it as the best news of the year.

But Nicky Henderson, who once threatened to chain himself to the open ditch to protect Kempton from the bulldozers, said he hoped this was not just a short-term reprieve. “OK, it’s going to see me out but I hope we can say it’s for the future of racing. It hopefully doesn’t mean: ‘As soon as Henderson’s gone, we’ll get on and develop it.’

“The only thing that’s important to us is the fact that the National Hunt and the all-weather will continue. The two work very well in tandem and the number of days’ racing they have there is enormous.”

The original development plan was intended to raise at least £100m for various projects, including a new all-weather circuit near Newmarket which is now presumably out of the question. The Jockey Club would not specify where the money would go if it were now allowed to build around the edges of Kempton.

Sandy Dudgeon, the Jockey Club’s senior steward, said: “A healthy, sustainable and well-funded sport for the long-term can only be achieved by investing in our sport. The need for British racing to raise significant funding to enable this is perhaps even more vital now than when our original proposals were announced.”

The winning post and floodlit tracks at Kempton.



The winning post and floodlit tracks at Kempton. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Another long slog seems in prospect before any planning permission could be granted and local campaigners are by no means overjoyed by the scaling back of the proposal. “We don’t want any houses on there,” said Alan Doyle of Keep Kempton Green. “This is not a case for bargaining. This is strongly-performing green belt, whether it’s 550 houses or 4,500. And I don’t believe that that would be the end of it. Four years later, they may come back and say: ‘Let’s have another 1,000 over here or 500 there’.”

The Jockey Club has been criticised for its seeming preparedness to part with a track of Kempton’s status, but the trainer Dan Skelton said he had seen the original proposal as a calculated gamble aiming at a potentially huge pot. “After speaking to some people in the know, I was under the impression that it was always a mighty long shot, like buying a ticket to the lottery in case the local council decided to go with it. So I never felt that racing was really under threat. I wasn’t too worried. But if that’s confirmed now, all the better.”

Meanwhile, the Arena Racing Company is seeking a new sponsor for the St Leger, the world’s oldest Classic. William Hill had been in talks about extending a three-year deal that ended last year but those ended without success on Tuesday.

source: theguardian.com