Lingfield Park racecourse is to benefit from better drainage on its turf course.

Races at Lingfield on the turf course in July and August will be transferred onto the all-weather track to allow for the work to take place on the downhill section of the course.

This should ensure more consistent going, particularly during the National Hunt season.

Jim Allen, racing director, says: “As home to the all-weather championships finals day we can look forward to more years of successful and competitive racing across all codes at Lingfield Park.”

Arena Racing Company (ARC), which runs Lingfield, is also investing in drainage improvements at Chepstow, Fontwell, Sedgefield, and Worcester, and is resurfacing the straight at Great Yarmouth.

Newcastle National Hunt track and Southwell’s turf track is also have investigatory work into flood prevention carried out.

What is believed to be the first all-weather cross-country training centre in the country has opened in Leicestershire in the East Midlands.

Willoughby Equestrian, based in Willoughby on the Wolds, owned and run by Tracey Dillon will offer all-weather, all year round cross-country training for the first time in the UK, according to British Eventing.

Ms Dillon said: “As I used to go eventing myself, I know how frustrating it is when the weather is either too bad or in summer the ground too hard to train.

“So we’ve put in a huge outdoor school, water complex, bank complex and ditches in the all-weather arena.”

Hoping to attract all levels of riders, the 60x70m arena, designed by Ms Dillon and built by local firm Fentons, will be charged out an hourly rate or a rate per horse.

Ms Dillon said: “We’re very flexible.”

Eric Smiley, Matthew Sampson, Aidan O’Connell, Nigel Taylor and Yogi Breisner, performance manager of the British Eventing team, will be taking clinics during September and October.

A spokesman for British Eventing said: “As far as we know, this is the first of its kind.”

For more info contact Tracey Dillon on 07769 734824.

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Racing is suspended at Great Leighs racecourse following the British Horseracing Authority’s refusal to grant a temporary licence.

The Essex course had been operating under a temporary licence since 1 January 2009, but this expired after racing last night (15 January).

At a meeting between the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and Great Leighs owner John Holmes yesterday, the BHA declined to grant a new temporary licence to allow racing to continue.

But the all-weather Essex course — which staged racing just last night — has told H&H it hopes to resume business from 29 January.

In a statement, John Holmes said: “We are going through a restructuring process at the moment and as part of that we were operating under a temporary licence.

“We successfully ran four fixtures this month under a temporary licence but the process has taken longer than we hoped. We applied for an extension to cover the next two (January 22 and 29) but were told we had not supplied enough information. Because of the timing for entries, we have lost next Thursday’s fixture.

“We are back at the BHA on Monday with a view to resuming racing from 29 January.”

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A new all-weather schooling strip has been opened in Newmarket by Jockey Club Estates as part of their expansion of the town’s national hunt facilities.

The two-and-a-half furlong schooling strip with three hurdles and two steeplechase fences was opened at the beginning of June.

William Gittus, managing director of Jockey Club Estates said: “While Newmarket trained horses are predominantly known for their success in the major flat races, we aim to provide for horses under both codes.

“Our aim is to produce high-class facilities which cater for all types of horse. Each winner prepared on our training grounds is a source of pride to us. We constantly review and upgrade the quality of our facilities and we have invested heavily in state of the art artificial surfaces.”

The completion of the project coincides with the release of figures by Jockey Club Estates, which show a substantial increase in the number of winners trained on their facilities in both Newmarket and Lambourn in the first five months of this year.

Mr Gittus added: “A thriving training centre has positive knock-on effects, not only for the racing industry but for the local economy as well. Consequently it is very encouraging that the number of horses based in Newmarket and Lambourn are increasing, and even more rewarding that the numbers of winners from both locations are increasing at a higher rate.”

John Maxse, director of communications at Jockey Club Estates told H&H: “The all-weather schooling strip opened at the start of this month and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback so far— including from trainers Lucy Wadham and Neil King.”

Lucy Wadham told H&H: “It seems to ride very well and the jockeys liked it so we’re pleased. Dominic Elsworth was quite impressed by it when he tried it. We will be using it regularly — we do prefer grass but at this time of year when it’s dry it’s better to jump on. So we’ll probably be using the all-weather up until the autumn.”

The all weather schooling strip is also open to point-to-point trainers as well as non-Newmarket owners and trainers. For more details Tel: 07710 819442

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Ireland’s first all-weather racecourse is entering the final stages of construction at Dundalk in Co Louth.

Based on the east coast, roughly halfway between Dublin and Belfast, the €35m development involves a floodlit 10-furlong Polytrack surface (a mix of sand, fibre, rubber and pvc with a wax coating), inside which is a top-class Greyhound track. The project became possible when the town’s horse and dog tracks, which were on different sites, amalgamated their resources.

Jim Martin, Dundalk’s chief executive, said: “With Polytrack replacing dirt surfaces at racecourses across America, the opportunity to open Ireland’s first floodlit all-weather track could not be missed.

“We are working flat out to complete the job in time for our opening meeting on 26 August.”

This news report was first published in Horse & Hound (17 May, ’07)

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The BHB has approved four all-weather tracks and granted them permission to bid for 2006 fixtures.

The four tracks — Great Leighs, Newmarket, Newbury and Kempton Park — obtained the green light following recommendations from the New Racecourses Committee, which rated each application against the BHB’s guidelines for the development of new racecourses.

Now it has secured BHB approval, Kempton Park will close for some seven months to build its all-weather track, with a view to running the first all-weather fixtures in January 2006. The course will only run four meetings — two in March, one in April and one on 2 May — before closing. From early May, Kempton’s 2005 fixtures will be moved to other tracks in the Racecourse Holdings Trust circuit. The Kempton Board will finalise the construction timetable for the all-weather track in March.

“We are delighted to receive BHB support for our scheme. We believe we can take the quality of all-weather racing to a new level and evolve into the top all weather racecourse in Europe, as well as maintaining the prestige of our jump programme,” says the Managing Director of Kempton Park, Julian Thick. “Our plans offer significant benefits, both for us and for the rest of the industry and we are keen to press ahead.”

Kempton will replace flat turf races with all-weather fixtures, while jump racing will continue as before.

By contrast, Newmarket envisages all-weather races to run alongside flat turf racing. The course had already received permission to run all-weather track fixtures when it applied in 2003 and 2004, but it had to resubmit an application for 2006, which was granted yesterday.

Similarly, Great Leighs, in Essex, had to re-apply for permission to join the 2006 fixture list. “We have been approved for several years now,” says course spokeswoman Pippa Cuckson. “For us, this is simply a renewal. What’s new is that we [Great Leighs, Kempton, Newbury and Newmarket] will be the four that go forward for the fixture allocation process.”

The course is brand-new and the track is currently under construction. “We hope to be racing in spring 2006,” says Cuckson.

Newbury was the fourth course to obtain BHB approval, which is subject to the course’s confirmation that it wants to join the 2006 fixture list. Newbury will run the all-weather fixtures in addition to its flat turf and jumping races.

The BHB is considering allowing two more tracks — Musselburgh and Sedgefield — to bid for 2006 fixtures. The new racecourse committee will hold further discussion with Musselburgh before submitting its recommendation in time for the BHB Board meeting on 7 March. Sedgefield, on the other hand, saw its application accepted in 2004 for 2005. Northern Racing, which runs the course, is now considering whether it wants to apply for 2006.

The BHB has clarified to applicants that “the way in which fixtures are to be funded and allocated in 2006 remains uncertain.”

However, the Board is striving to ensure that all flat racecourses will be able to bid for both existing and newly-created BHB National and Regional fixtures. Other opportunities available to courses will be to transfer existing fixtures from within their own group’s list or to buy existing fixtures from other courses.

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