Why the Queen’s racecourse

COUNTRY ILLUSTRATED72 ANNIVERSARY 2006

Royal Ascot 2006: the best track in the world for Thoroughbreds: a soaring grandstand for

Why the Queen’s racecourse

behind—it would be necessary to move thewinning post and much of the straight course40 metres in towards the middle. It would bepointless, of course, to end up with the finestgrandstand and not to have a track to matchit. However, it was imperative from a finan-cial point of view that the task of rebuilding

both would be completed in atwo-year period so that only oneRoyal Meeting would have to bestaged elsewhere.

Enormous thought and re-search went into not just thewhole plan, but also the team tohelp realise their dream withinthat short timespan. The SportsTurf Research Institute, whosehead of the construction team isRob Everitt, was put in charge ofthe track and Rod Sheard wasengaged as the architect for thenew grandstand and paddock.

The STRI specialise in innova-tive techniques for research intoand engineering of new sportsturf surfaces. They were responsi-ble for the Kennel Gate movableturf crossing near the mile-and-a-quarter start at Ascot as long agoas 1998. More recently they havebecome well-known for high-pro-file projects such as ManchesterCity’s stadium for the 2002 Com-monwealth Games, and the newand very successful outfield atLords cricket ground.

To create the new Ascot they

EVERAL years ago Her Majesty’sRepresentative and Chairman ofthe Ascot Authority, now Duke ofDevonshire but better known thenas ‘Stoker’ Hartington, realised that

the Queen’s racecourse at Ascot was badlyin need of modernisation. The racing surfacewas under constant criticism forbeing either too firm or occa-sionally too soft; but the tworoad crossings and, in particu-lar, the one over the main roadon the straight track, three fur-longs from the finish, providedhazards that finally were con-sidered unacceptable for Eng-land’s premier racecourse. Inaddition the grandstand, whichhad last been refurbished in1962, needed a total rebuild.

The Ascot Authority, togeth-er with their enterprising chiefexecutive, Douglas Erskine-Crum, decided to bite the bulletand somehow find the £180 mil-lion needed to make the newAscot into ‘the best racecoursein the world’. To achieve thisultimate and admirable objec-tive, an immense amount of de-tailed planning was necessary.

Even for this influential teamit was impossible to move theA329, so in order to give them-selves room to build what theywanted—a brand new grand-stand with a suitable paddock

COUNTRY ILLUSTRATED 73ANNIVERSARY 2006

Left: Royal Ascot as it willbe this summer, the newgrandstand soaring abovethe track. Top: the Ascotgrandstand as it was. Menbehind the vision: the Dukeof Devonshire (above) andMr Douglas Erskine-Crum.

S

up to 8,000 racegoers: Ian Balding, who has trained many winners there, gives his verdict

is now the finest in the world


first had to lay down, approximately 18months ago, nearly 30 acres of new turf at afarm near Grantham, Lincolnshire, whichwould be mature and ready for harvestinglast summer. Before this new turf could belaid, the old course had to be excavated, andspecialist drainage work was done on thesubsoil, before an aggregate of crushedstone and sand was laid. Finally, the layer ofspecially-grown turf was added. The seedused was mainly a perennial ryegrass mixedwith meadow fescues, which is known to bethe best mixture for resilience and rapid re-covery. This is exactly the mixture which weuse on Watership Down when we have to re-seed any areas that have been damaged byrooks seeking the dreaded leatherjackets.

I first looked at the new turf course at Ascot inearly October last year, the same day in fact that

some of John Gosden’s horses were trial gal-loped there. The jockeys who rode them on thatoccasion were quoted as saying that the turf rodegood/slow or even good to soft, although I couldbarely discern their hoof marks. I have neverseen better ground on any racecourse during my50-odd years in the sport and was immensely im-pressed, not just by the incredible cushion of thenew turf, which was reminiscent of our owndownland turf, but also by the new camber onthe bends turning into the straight and after thewinning post. The two underpasses—on themain straight track three furlongs from homeand by the golf clubhouse just before the hometurn—have been beautifully done and thewhole of the straight mile course is now asteady and even uphill rise with no undulations.

That same day I walked right around theround course and from the mile-and-a-half

start to the five-furlong pole the old turf,which had been heavily sand-drained, wasnot at that stage in good shape. I noticed thatthe Ascot golf course had been moved toan area on the other side of the A330, but Iwas glad to see that the old cricket groundwhere I often played for Nicky Beaumont’sXI is still there in the middle of the course. Anew reservoir has been built where surfacewater from the many drains leading fromboth the grandstand and racetrack will accu-mulate. This will ensure that the racecourseis never short of water for irrigation.

When I was shown the track again sixweeks later, in late-November, the new turfhad not surprisingly gone back whereas theold turf and newly-seeded parts of the jumpcourse had improved dramatically. My im-pression was that by next June or indeed by

Surely the best 80th birthday present for Her Majesty


Saturday, May 27, when the first meeting isscheduled, the track will harbour the bestground one could find anywhere on which torace Thoroughbreds. With a fully comput-erised watering system of both pop-ups andboom irrigators and a track wide enough toenable the rails to be moved regularly, Ascotwill be better equipped than any other courseto deal with the vagaries of the English cli-mate and a five-day meeting in mid-June.

The former Clerk of the Course, NickCheyne, has moved on to fresh pastures atWeatherbys and the new incumbent will be36-year-old Chris Stickels, who learned histrade at Lingfield and Folkestone. The role ofa Clerk of the Course is not always an envi-able one because they seem to take the flakfrom everybody and receive few compli-ments in return. However, I cannot imagine

Above: Artist’s aerial image of the racecourse betweenhigh street and heath. Left: Soaring like a parade ofgiant parasols, the galleria in the new grandstand.


a more exciting job in racing than this one.The new grandstand at Ascot, designed by

Rod Sheard and his team, will I suspect be-come a landmark almost as famous as nearbyWindsor Castle. One can only describe thisimpressive building, which will accommodate80,000 people on the Thursday of Royal As-cot, as magnificent. It has the elegance of agiant parasol but at the same time is sympa-thetic to the local environment. Sheard him-self, now in his 50s, was born and brought upin Brisbane but has been working in Englandsince 1975. His firm have had the experienceof building new grandstands in Malaysiaand Penang, and have worked recently atboth Newmarket and Cheltenham. Alongwith Ascot, however, their biggest currentassignment is the new stadium at Wembley.

The main aspect ofthe new stand is per-haps the way in whichit mirrors the featuresof the local woods.Most of the buildinghas purposely beenkept below the maincanopy of adjacenttrees, and as well asbeing a pleasure tobehold, it is also su-perbly designed inter-nally to give a feelingof space and easymovement. Many es-calators will carry

spectators from the ground to the sixth floorif necessary, and to the many different andspecialised areas in between. Owners andtrainers will be very well cared for and mem-bers of the Royal Ascot Racing Club, thanksin part to Motivator, will have the most luxuri-ous quarters apart from perhaps the RoyalBox itself. Another innovation will be the 50loges for parties of 10 that create a privateviewing facility in a central area.

The stand, despite its size, will be versatileenough to downsize to a much smaller middlesection so that the lower attendances on a win-ter midweek National Hunt day will not feellost. The most important feature of the wholerefurbishment, however, will probably be thenew paddock at the back of the grandstand. Itwill be almost circular in shape, allowing asmany horses to parade as before but many

more people to stand safely in the middle.There will be room for nearly 8,000 to observethe constant drama of the horses and jockeysbeforehand as well as the winner returningand all presentations after each race. The ad-jacent weighing room, with a glass front and

roof, will be the subject of much interest; like-wise a tunnel for the horses to go from thepaddock under the stand and on to the coursewill be a unique feature in this country.

The modern trainer will not need to be asfit as his counterpart of yesteryear. Having

Royal Ascot: keyto future glory

days on theEnglish Turf

The architect, RodSheard, has created amasterpiece . It is ontime and within budget:a phenomenal success.


five or six runners in an afternoon used tomean walking and carrying a saddle the bestpart of two miles during the day. The spaciousnew saddling boxes under the old Tote build-ing, and the new pre-parade ring, will be ahaven for horses and their attendants, while

the lovely trees around the old paddock willbecome like a small park in which to wanderand contemplate a winning jackpot.

I am so excited that I can scarcely wait tosee it all in action this summer. It may evenmean breaking the current golden rule of

not going racing unless the stable has a run-ner of some merit. It is only right that ourQueen should own the ‘best racecourse inthe world’ and what would be more popularthan a winner in the Royal colours at theRoyal Meeting in her 80th birthday year? ■■

Why the Queen’s racecourse

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