Category: Racecourses

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.

Of course, the minimum distance for Flat racing in Britain is five furlongs. The fastest sprint course in Britain is the five-furlong course at Epsom Downs Racecourse, situated on the North Downs in Surrey. Races over five furlongs start on a chute at the top of the home straight and head downhill for all bar the last half a furlong or so, before climbing to the finish line.

Nowadays, the standard time for five furlongs at Epsom is just 54.00 seconds, but the world record for that distance was recorded in the Epsom ‘Dash’ – a five-furlong handicap run on Derby Day in early June – in 2012. On that occasion, the 4-year-old Stome Of Folca, trained by John Best and ridden by Luke Morris, belied odds of 50/1 to win the race in a time of 53.69 seconds, or 1.31 seconds faster than the standard time at the time, at an average speed of 41.67 miles per hour. Indeed, the winning time was not only the fastest recorded anywhere in Britain since the advent of electronic timing, but also a new world record, as sanctioned by Guinness World Records.

Nowadays, Ffos Las is a dual-purpose racecourse situated between the former mining villages of Trimsaran and Carway in the Gwendraeth Valley in Carmarthenshire, South West Wales. Indeed, the 600-acre site on which the racecourse now stands was, until 1997, the location of one of the deepest opencast mining excavations in Europe. However, the name ‘Ffos Las’ was taken from the farm that occupied the site prior to the commencement of mining operations in 1983. ‘Ffos’ is a Welsh word meaning ‘ditch’ or ‘trench’ and ‘Las’ is a Welsh word meaning ‘blue’, so the name translates as ‘blue ditch’.

Mining ceased in 1997 and the site was subsequently restored and reclaimed, such that Ffos Las Racecourse opened its doors in 2009 as the first purpose-built racecourse to be established in Britain for 82 years. In so doing, it became the third racecourse in Wales after Bangor-on-Dee, which opened in 1859 and Chepstow, which opened in 1926. In 2018, David ‘Dai’ Walters, the founder of Ffos Las Racecourse, sold his interest to Arena Racing Company (ARC), but the course continues to flourish, offering 21 fixtures throughout the year.