WhAt'S gOiNg On OvErThErE ?

jesaulenko
2012 December 19 10:40:47 
A second British racecourse was left teetering on the edge of extinction as Folkestone hosted its last fixture for the foreseeable future on Tuesday.

Just two days earlier, Hereford shut for business with owner Arena Racing Company (ARC) believing the 17 years remaining on the lease from the local council did not justify the venue being kept open.

Folkestone, another ARC course, is not said to be financially viable either but some faint hope remains that closing could only be a temporary measure.

The county of Kent now no longer has a racecourse following the closure of Wye in 1974 with Folkestone having staged meetings since 1898.

ARC claimed operations could continue if more than 800 homes were built on the site, with the funds being directed to update facilities and move the actual position of the course itself.

A proposal was submitted to the local council for the building but it was left out of their core strategy that will be passed on to the Secretary of State's inspectorate.

The council still say they are open to future discussions in order for the racecourse to remain open.

"Arena made clear in 2007 that the racecourse was not viable in its present state and we made a proposal for the redevelopment to the council, but the inspector didn't like it," ARC chairman Michael Howard said.

"If we can get some words in the core strategy proposal, which will be finalised when the inspector makes a decision in the next few months, then we could be in business.

"This means we can start talking to the council again, so we can keep the door open.

"Newbury proposed a redevelopment in order to make themselves financially viable, and that's what we hope to do.

"It would be very sad if it doesn't happen."
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3 Comments

The Tutor

2012 December 19 17:10:44

Interesting theory Quez.

A sweeping statement though.

In your opinion which tracks and racing centers would you shut down and justify that by telling us why?

Feel free to use any figures, data etc to back up your argument.

Cheers
The Tutor

quezacotl

2012 December 19 13:30:17

Something we should be doing here IMO, scaling back and closing down these racing centre's that are only barely alive and only seem to act as places to finally dump the slowest of the slow horse's that may have started as a coolmore bred but are so slow and ill conformed they cannot keep up...

...unless of these places take on a totally voluntary capacity, run and pay for their meetings themselves and don't seek to become TAB events or demand to be included in proper thoroughbred racing of course..

Less is more, we breed too many ill conformed awful blooded hacks, we race too often, and race too many short coursing events.


I would love to a see a national cap on our breeding ranks, this would really improve our stock over a short imo.

Nothing wrong in the UK, a little scaling back is to be expected, change is imminent, and this is for the best, particularly in a country with a land mass so much smaller than us, the right Direction imo.

They could probably get away with half as many racetracks as they already and it would really be an issue, mostly they don't train on the tracks anyways.

OliverFan

2012 December 20 09:55:49

"so slow and ill conformed they cannot keep up..." a perfect judgement of yourself quez.

geelong63

2012 December 19 11:41:49

Re: WhAt'S gOiNg On OvErThErE ?

If you're sending secret code OS Jezza I hereby declare that I'm an innocent bystander.

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