Car Park, Fontwell Park Racecourse - geograph

Fontwell Park Racecourse is a horse racing course located in the village of Fontwell in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, owned by ARC Racing. It features an oval

hurdles Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

course. Fontwell Park was founded by Alfred Day who trained racehorses at The Hermitage, by the Chichester to Arundel road, from 1887. Day returned the name Fontwell to common use after researching the history of the area, and by 1924 he had purchased enough land to open the racecourse. The hurdles track was a normal shape, but the steeplechase course was laid out in a figure of eight shape to use the space on the site. The first meeting took place on 21 May 1924. The grandstand and the weighing room were built with thatched roofs. The opening race was won by Gem, the 5/4 favourite Gem, ridden by jockey Fred Rees. At the course in October 1949, Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) had her first winner as an owner when Monaveen won the Chichester Handicap Chase. In 1984,

John Francome John Francome (born 13 December 1952) is a retired 7 time British Champion Jump Jockey. In addition to being a successful jockey, Francome was previously a racing trainer, broadcaster with Channel 4 and an author. Racing career Francome fir ...

rode his 1,036th career winner at Fontwell Park, passing Stan Mellor's record for a

National Hunt In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: ...

jockey - Francome's record has subsequently been beaten. The feature race of the season at Fontwell Park is the Grade Two National Spirit Hurdle run over a distance of two miles and four furlongs in February. It is a recognised

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Ra ...

trial. My Way de Solzen, trained by Alan King, won the race in 2006 before winning the World Hurdle. Lough Derg, trained by David Pipe and owned by Bill Frewen, took the prize in 2008 and 2009. Trenchant (Alan King/Robert Thornton) took the prize in 2010 and Celestial Halo (Paul Nicholls/Harry Skelton) was the winner in 2011. A new £6.5m Grandstand opened in the Premier Enclosure in August 2010 sponsored by events and plant hire company Winner Group.

Notable races

References

External links

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Course guide on GG.COMCourse guide on At The RacesOfficial website History
{{Horse racing in Great Britain Sports venues in West Sussex Horse racing venues in England Arun District Sports venues completed in 1924