Category: Racecourses

The Mildmay Course at Aintree was the brainchild of Anthony Bingham Mildmay, a celebrated amateur jockey, who rode in the Grand National before and after World War II. Indeed, he may well have won the National, but for his reins coming unbuckled on Davy Jones in 1936 and a debilitating attack of cramp on Cromwell in 1948.

Known to his friends as ‘Nitty’, Mildmay originally devised what became known as the Mildmay Course as a training ground for horses with Grand National aspirations, complete with the same idiosyncratic spruce fences, albeit on a smaller scale, as those on the National Course. In any event, Mildmay died prematurely in a swimming accident, once again caused by a crippling attack of cramp – the result of a neck injury, sustained during a fall at Folkestone in 1947 – off the coast of Devon in 1950; he was just 41.

The Mildmay Course did not officially open until 1954 and, when it did, the departure from traditional, birch fences did not go down well with trainers of the day, resulting in small fields. Nevertheless, the spruce fences remained until 1975, when they were replaced with conventional park fences and, in 1990, the water jump was removed and the layout modified to create the Mildmay Course as ut is today.

Scone Palace is a stately home situated to the east of the village of Old Scone – historically the capital of the Kingdom of Scotland – and to the north-east of Perth, overlooking the River Tay. The modern palace was completed, in Gothic Revival style, in 1807 and is surrounded by an extensive expanse of parkland, which dates from the Victoria era.

Scone Palace Park is home to Perth Racecourse, which has the distinction of being the northernmost racecourse, of any description, in Britain. Perth Racecourse, which exclusively stages National Hunt racing, consists of a right-handed, flat circuit, 1 mile 2 furlongs in extent, with a long run-in on the steeplechase course.

The first two-day meeting at Perth Racecourse took place on September 23 and 24, 1908. Nowadays, the highlight of the racing year at Perth Racecourse is the season-opening Perth Festival, which is staged over three days in late April each year. Outside the Perth Festival. is the Sam Morshead Perth Gold Cup, a handicap chase run over 2 miles 7 furlongs and 180 yards and worth £25,000 in guaranteed prize money. The race is named in honour of a former clerk of the course, who died of cancer in 2018.

With the exception of the confusingly-named ‘National Hunt Flat Race’, which involves no obstacles at all, all National races are contested over hurdles or fences. Hurdles are the lower, less substantial type of obstacle. Each hurdle consists of brushwood, cut and fashioned into panel that stands at least 3’6″ high. Individual hurdles, which must be uniform across the racecourse, are installed, side-by-side, to create what is known as a ‘flight’ of hurdles. Each flight, of which there must be eight in the first two miles of a race, measures a minimum of 3’1″ high and 30′ wide.

By contrast, steeplechase fences are higher and more substantial; they consist of a rigid frame, made of steel or wood and stuffed with real birch cuttings or plastic birch, to create an obstacle at least 4’6″ high. Unlike hurdles, which are often knocked flat during a race, fences are much less forgiving . Furthermore, a so-called ‘plain’ fence may be preceded by a shallow ditch, a few feet wide, to create an ‘open ditch’. The cross country course at Cheltenham, which is only used a few times a year, features idiosyncratic obstacles, natural and man-made, including living trees, shrubs and bushes, banks, ditches and rails. It is very much a ‘specialist’ course and the only one of its kind in Britain.

The first evening meeting in Britain took place at Hamilton Park Racecourse, in South Lanarkshire, on Friday, July 18, 1947. The meeting was staged on the Friday evening in anticipation of a visit by the Royal Family – King George VI, Princess Margaret, Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten – the following day and attracted a crowd of 18,000. History records that the first race was won by Culroy, ridden by three-time Derby-winning jockey Billy Nevett. On the whole, though, the meeting was regarded as something of a gimmick.

Nevertheless, an estimated crowd of 21,000 attended the Saturday fixture to see the future Queen Elizabeth II and Duke of Edinburgh, who were making their first public appearances together. It took a while, but the ‘gimmick’ eventually caught on. By the start of the twenty-first century, most racecourses staged at least one evening meeting during the year. Indeed, Hamilton has continued its tradition; in 2021, of the 18 fixtures scheduled for the course took place in the evening. On Saturday, May 8, 1971 Hamilton also had the distinction of becoming the first racecourse in Britain to stage a morning meeting, although it would be fair to say that that particular innovation has proved less popular elsewhere.