Kempton to be sold for housing

● Jockey Club plan to sell King George track for housing

Racing was stunned yesterday when the Jockey Club announced it plans to turn Kempton Park into housing to raise £100 million to invest in the sport.

The home of the King George VI Chase could be bulldozed after 2021 with the famous Boxing Day race switching to nearby Sandown.

Jockey Club Senior Steward Roger Weatherby said: “We must show leadership and take tough decisions to help our sport to keep moving forwards.”

Kempton, home of the King George VI Chase, could be closed for housing redevelopment “from 2021 at the earliest” owners the Jockey Club have announced.

The £500million of investments to be made in the sport in a 10-year plan proposed by the Jockey Club would see Kempton set aside as a future redevelopment site, with a new all-weather venue to be built if that idea goes ahead.

The Jockey Club’s land at The Links in Newmarket is the front-runner as the location for a new floodlit artificial track, with the King George switching to Sandown.

Thekemptonestatehasbeen submitted for consideration to Spelthorne Borough Council in Surrey, which is seeking to address unmet local housing needs and reviewing its Green Belt boundaries.

The Jockey Club insist Kempton will only be redeveloped if the move will generate in excess of £100m and the allweather circuit at Newmarket is given the green light.

Senior Steward Roger Weatherby said: “The Jockey Club is governed by Royal Charter to act for the longterm good of British racing.

“One of the ways we want to live up to that is through a series of projects that offer benefits all around the country and collectively add up to us contributing more than half a billion pounds to the sport over the next decade.

“We must show leadership and, where merited, take tough decisions to help our sport to keep moving forwards. The decision to submit our estate at Kempton Park for consideration in the Local Plan is unique and has not been taken lightly.”

The Jockey Club will ask that the King George and a select number of Kempton’s jumps events switch to Sandown, just six miles away.

Sandown would then benefit from a major investment, and Kempton’s other jumps fixtures could be spread around other Jockey Club-owned racecourses throughout the country.