KEMPTON

Somewhere in the Kempton Park press release (January 10^th 2017) issued by Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR) I find, “The King George VI Chase can be moved to Sandown.”  Recently there have been other references from JCR to “other races” and to “selected races” being similarly transferred. These were timely warnings that I was reading the manifesto of a group which includes at least two people who know less about the jumping racehorse than one would have expected.

Kempton is a particularly fine course for races over fences (as opposed to hurdles). Those horses that excel over the Kempton fence have to be brilliant because a flat track and well-drained ground encourage a fast pace which tests jumping skill and nerve to the limit, for horses and riders alike. In addition, the shape of the track is such that the audience has a wonderful view of what is going on. Thus when the chips are down and the jumping continues to be superb you will hear the crowds gasp louder and longer at Kempton than at any other course in the land.

Kempton is also blessed by its proximity to Sandown. Not because they are the same or even alike, but because they are quite different and therefore complement each other. Both tracks contribute equally to a two-part test for horses that aspire to be the best over steeplechase fences wherever they meet them. This provides magic for the racing public.

Kempton’s location is also sublime. It has access to every motorway in the south of England, and its own railway station.  In addition it has a potential customer-base called London and the Home Counties.

In addition Kempton is part of Spelthorne District. The council is determined to keep its green belt intact and loves the racecourse with a passion.

In a word, it is a racecourse located in racecourse Heaven. So why do its owners (JCR) want to sell it and see it turned into 3,000 houses to be built by a firm called Redrow Homes. Why?

Among the FAQs that accompany the JCR dossier are the following. [I paraphrase.]

First, is Kempton losing money?  Answer: Negative. Kempton is profitable.

Second, is JCR short of money, and looking to bail itself out by the sale of Kempton? Answer: Negative.  JCR is bound by Royal Charter to act always for the longterm good of British Racing, and that commitment underpins the proposals for Kempton.

So there must be something seriously wrong with Kempton, if its owners, in spite of being financially secure and delighted to  promote the welfare of a whole community rather than confine their attention to the bottom line of the JCR balance sheet, are so determined to sell. Particularly as the racecourse, as a racecourse,  has obvious potential and is profitable.

You don’t understand, protests JCR’s chief executive since 2008 Simon Bazalgette (an accountant by trade).

According to him, the sale of Kempton (if the requisite planning permission is forthcoming), will bring untold wealth to the whole racing industry. It will benefit by £500,000,000 (half a billion) over ten years.

A less generous analysis came from the pen of Racing Post reporter Tom Kerr, an excellent writer with a reputation for wisdom in matters financial as well as sporting. On 20^th January 2017 he wrote:

“The headline figure in the Jockey Club’s announcement of the plan to put Kempton up for sale was the £500 million proposed investment [in racing] over the next ten years. This half billion is pure smoke and mirrors. What that figure represents is not an ambitious investment programme but, in fact, little more than a continuation of present operational investment.”

This is a short extract from a long article which deserves the attention of anyone with an interest in racing’s future. It can be found on Google (Kempton Tom Kerr 20 Jan 2017).

His message is clear: the policy is wrong, the price is wrong. My own suspicion goes a little bit further. I have this feeling that, over a period of ten years, the supposed benefits for racing as a whole are quite likely to be lost in translation. There’s a lot of that about these days.

Tom Kerr’s Friday column on Jan 27^th 2017 is another magnificent piece of work. Headlined “From guardians to undertakers: how the Jockey Club betrayed Kempton”, it tells the tale of the racecourse’s progress in the direction of some form of development.

In 2013 the possibilities were limited to partial development of non-racecourse areas. A presentation to the local council by the Jockey Club’s property consultants noted that the Jockey Club was committed to racing at Kempton and “see themselves as guardians of Kempton Park.”

Three years later, the local council issued a “call for sites” – applicants could register sites that were, or would become, available for development. This was in accordance with a central government initiative. Applications had to be made between October 18^th 2016 and January 10^th 2017. On Jan 10^th 2017 JCR announced that it had made available for development, not parts of non-racecourse land, but the whole estate, racecourse and all.

The dates given above suggest that discussions regarding the plan began only in November 2016, which  means that the decision to offer the whole of Kempton was not a carefully considered one, but a rush-job and, as far as one can tell, without any consultation with the rest of the racing industry.

Is that the end of the story? With a flourish Bazalgette produces one more rabbit from the chapeau. Part of the fortune created by the sale of the family silver will be spent building a whole new racecourse at Newmarket, which will boast the best all-weather track in the world. Lunacy? Possibly, but at least there is just the chance that Bazalgette may be brought to a grinding halt by another local council which takes its green belt seriously.

Time will tell whether Newmarket wants a brand new racecourse. Trainer and former mayor of Newmarket John Berry described the plan as “the road to hell.”

Clearly, if such an all-weather track were built, it would be competing with Chelmsford, which since its resumption has been doing sterling work providing all-weather racing to keep the bookmakers in business and racing’s levy money income ticking over. Am I right in thinking that Fred Done now owns Chelmsford? Now there is a real visionary! His acquisition of the Tote was a masterstroke of which he can be very proud. But of course he has spent a lifetime in and around the Sport of Kings, and has been stabbed five times for his trouble. No wonder he gets things right, and I tend to think that he is entitled to blow his top from time to time.

Is this Kempton crisis the end of civilisation as we know it? Not necessarily. Kempton must be saved from the breaker’s yard. If financial rationalisation is the way forward, let the non-racecourse areas by turned into cash. That would certainly keep JCR in funds. Then there would be the need for a dose of TLC for the course, plus cooperation with the local council to make the site something that racecourse and community can combine to promote. After all, it is already making a profit and has shown itself capable of hosting the big occasion without missing a beat.

One caveat. If the racing community dislikes the Bazalgette model, it will have to do more than just moan.  I get the impression that he sees himself as a man of destiny. He wishes to transform racing.  Moaning will only encourage him to be more and more obstinate.  Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

PS At the beginning of this article I quoted JCR’s airy assurance that races could be transferred from Kempton to Sandown – “nae bother”. Not so, according to Mr Robert Waley-Cohen, a member of the Jockey Club with a lifetime’s hands-on experience of racing as owner, trainer, rider and policy maker at the highest level. He says that the proposal to move races from Kempton to Sandown is a non-starter because the ground at Sandown is in need of vital repair work and is in no condition to take on extra races.

If he knows that, then so does JCR – and has done all along. This gives one a sobering insight into just how ignorant and irresponsible is its determination to get Kempton sold, whatever the consequences.

 

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

1

The Cinderella story has had a happy ending. California Chrome, the winingmost horse in American history, was thumped on his last outing and has now retired to married bliss. Following his career, from a distance and through video-recordings, has been an absolute joy. America is not all bad. For the last three years I have been sitting in front of my PC at teatime watching my favourite horse doing a bit of fast work in the early morning 6,000 miles away, and I am being told (it’s on the screen) how many seconds it has taken him to run “a split” (2 furlongs, I think). When he runs in the middle of the English night, I see the race at breakfast time. Not bad.

And his trainer, the immortal Art Sherman, is another joy. A marvellous trainer. A better human being I feel sure I shall never encounter. Not that I have actually met him.

2

Not a word about the ROLLING MAUL this month. That in itself should put a spring in the step of all who will be busy, one hopes, giving the Philistine a bloody nose. The next edition comes out just before Cheltenham: that is the moment when the subject of big-field NH starts will be given the treatment. Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front – for the moment.

Best wishes.