NEVER A DULL MOMENT AT HEREFORD – EVEN WHEN IT’S BARELY OPEN

Nobody likes being talked about in front of their faces rather than being talked to, and on that basis one can only guess what those who hold Hereford Racecourse dearest to their hearts made of the currently semi-retired venue cropping up, directly or indirectly, in a couple of Racing Post articles this week.

Thursday’s [October 24^th, page 8] edition of the trade paper noted that the self-styled “Classic Country Racecourse”, last used for National Hunt action on December 16^th of last year, was once more foremost in owner Arena Racing Company’s thoughts, but not with any obvious view to expediting the return of Rules action there that so many of us crave.

Rather, ARC’s gaze had been directed squarely towards the centre of the course, earmarked as the site of a driving range – replete with 10 metre-high fencing, floodlights and a shop – by Halo Leisure.

Emergent threats of development of the racecourse site for the pursuit of anything other than racing were perhaps always likely once ARC deprived it of Rules action, but Halo’s interest actually dates far further back than last year’s sad sequence of events, planning permission for the range having been granted to the Herefordshire and Bridgend-based concern in spring 2010 before issues of planning permission started to delay matters.

Of course, golfing facilities in the middle of racetracks are neither unheard of nor usually especially much of a hindrance.  Three of Fakenham Golf Club’s 18 holes are situated entirely within the West Norfolk tracks’s tiny confines, likewise nine of Southwell Golf Club’s holes have a circuit of plastic railings around them (as well as more sand outside the bunkers than in!).  Ludlow looks more like a golf course half-disguised as a racing venue than the other way round, but functions equally well as either amenity; whilst Sandown Park somehow manages to accommodate three nine-hole tests and a 33-bay driving range, without their combined fixtures and fittings detracting from the racegoers’ viewing experience to any extent.

Conversely, ARC appears to harbour fears that any infield development of the Hereford site (and certainly that of the magnitude proposed by Halo) will deprive racegoers of the currently untrammelled view of the back straight. 

In so far as elevation off the ground for spectators at this venue compares unfavourably to, say, Sandown, where the main viewing area sits on a higher point of the circuit than the back straight, it’s a fair concern.  From a relatively low step on the grandstand at the Esher track, one can see right over the golfing furniture and enjoy the runners streaming over the Railway Fences et al pretty much unimpeded.  From the equivalent position at Hereford, it would be most unlikely.

It’s just a pity, however, that nothing about ARC’s intervention – solicitor’s letter to Herefordshire Council and all – apparently details more explicitly just why so much concern is being invested in keeping the view of the entire circuit clear of new developments such as those proposed. 

Is there a credible buyer for the venue waiting in the wings, one whose interest would be tested sorely if it at least a quarter of the circuit they’d be buying suddenly became invisible to paying customers by any means other than aerial viewing?  Alternatively, has the ongoing, often fitful dialogue between Company and Council actually progressed behind closed doors to the point that the former’s long-requested lease of up to 125 years on the course may be on the verge of being granted? 

Time will tell – this is surely not an investment of effort on ARC’s part without some deeper reason underpinning it.

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Racing has not, as many of you will know, come to a total halt at Hereford since the cessation of National Hunt action, and having been an enthusiastic visitor to the venue for some years previously the Arabian Racing Organisation opted to stage no fewer than six of its 12 full racedays (as opposed to its additional single races appended to Rules cards) here in 2013, including the season’s concluding event on September 28^th.

With one fixture apiece also at Taunton and Newbury, eight of the ARO’s racedays thus take place at either National Hunt or dual-purpose tracks, in addition to seven of the nine single races.

It is set against the backdrop of this evidence that the ARO’s Racing Management team this week announced the discontinuation of its Open Race events for former Rules horses (usually one or two per fixture, and anywhere between 5f and 2m in distance), citing the types of racecourse used for ARO meetings as being ill-suited to the speedy, purpose-bred mostly ex-Flat performers who contested such events.

That statement as it stands assumes a very linear interpretation of what Rules horses are and aren’t capable of – don’t many Flat-bred animals cope perfectly adequately with National Hunt tracks in bumpers, over hurdles and even over fences?

In any event, whilst more likely to be possessive of changes of actual and tactical speed than their Arab counterparts, “speed” is still a very relative concept when considering the type of animals that are permitted to take part in Open Races at ARO fixtures – Thoroughbreds with a British Horseracing Association handicap rating of just 42 or less (72 or less over the sticks).

Frankel this lot ain’t.  The Delyth Thomas-trained Jiggalong, four times a winner and once second from five outings in 2013 to emerge as the season’s outstanding Open Race competitor, had never rated higher than 61 in an extensive Rules career (despite winning two minor handiaps) and left that sphere on the lowest of low ebbs in mid-2011 having failed to run up to her mid-40s rating on any of six outings that year.  This season’s second best Open Race horse, Imagery, beat just five home and never ran to a Racing Post rating higher than 29 in three middle-distance maidens for Ron Harris in summer 2012.

Just how fast is it thought that the likes of Jiggalong and Imagery could pelt around the Herefords of this world, then, that constitutes such a risk to themselves and others?

This writer has a great fondness for the ARO and very much most of what it stands for.  It puts on affordable and characteristically different racedays with a relaxed atmosphere, and it evidently equips its employees very well for their future careers - Huntingdon/Warwick Cleark of the Course Sulekha Varma, BHA judge Di Clark, Racecourse Steward Charlie Corbett and commentator Gary Capewell all honed their respective crafts at Arab fixtures.

All of which renders this pronouncement - admittedly not the only reason cited for the discontinuation, with a lack of sufficient viable sponsors being another - a little short of the usual vision and well-founded common sense one has come to expect of this organisation.  Above all else, it also leaves around 50 ex-Rules horses, most bought specifically for ARO Open Races, facing an uncertain 2014 as their adopted mode of racing enters its winter recess.