Sedgefield Racecourse

Sedgefield
The grandstand and parade ring
Interactive map of Sedgefield
LocationSedgefield, County Durham
Owned byArena Racing Company (formerly Northern Racing)
Date opened1846 (officially recongised meetings)
Screened onSky Sports Racing
Course typeNational Hunt
Notable racesDurham National
Official website

Sedgefield Racecourse is an English left-handed horse racing course, used for National Hunt racing. It is owned by Arena Racing Company and located close to the town of Sedgefield, County Durham. The course is an undulating, left handed oval of about one mile and two furlongs, with tight bends. It was scheduled to host sixteen fixtures in 2026[1] and is also used as a venue for numerous other indoor and outdoor events, such as weddings and conferences.[2]

Racing at Sedgefield has taken place since 1732 and moved to land laid out in the grounds of Sands Hall in 1804. The current course was laid out in 1846, when the first officially recognised meetings were made. Its facilities were very limited and the course narrowly avoided closure on occasions in the twentieth century but has survived, despite a high fatality rate (which has led to reconfigurations of the track).

History

Racing has been taking place at Sedgefield since at least 1732,[3] but little is known of these early meetings, and it is possible racing was taking place back in the 17th century.[4] In 1804 Ralph John Lambton (c. 1767 – 1844), an ancestor of the Earls of Durham, formed a club based at the Hardwick Arms and Sedgefield became the headquarters of the Ralph Lambton Hunt.[3] Racing flourished in land made available in the grounds of Sands Hall.[4] Among the members of the club was Robert Smith Surtees, the author of Jorrocks.[5] Indeed, Surtees would briefly take over Lambton's pack after he was left bedridden for the rest of his life after a crashing fall.[6]

Racing may not have been staged every year and it was not until 1846 that officially recognised meetings were held and the present track laid out.[4][3] The Sedgefield course was part of the Sands Hall Estate, home of the Ord family and once known as the Melton of the North, showing the high regard it was held in.[3] A new stand was built in 1900 as a replacement for a wooden structure demolished in 1870.[4]

Until World War I the Sedgefield Hunt staged an annual two-day fixture in March. When racing resumed the number of meetings soon increased to three,[7] including a lucrative Bank Holiday fixture. A new Racecourse Company was founded in 1927,[8] and by 1939, five fixtures were scheduled for the year (the last one didn't take place due to the outbreak of World War II however).[3]

The traditional Boxing Day South Durham Hunt at the racecourse in 1974. Incidentally, Tony Blair was MP for Sedgefield and banned fox hunting in England & Wales.

Facilities only improved slowly, and in the 1960s Clement Freud famously described the course as 'all field and not much sedge'. In 1975, the course still lacked a photo finish camera for the fifteen meetings per year it staged by this time, which led to jostling of the judge by supporters of a beaten favourite.[4] When Frank Scotto was appointed as chairman in 1977 following the death of Harry Lane the course was rumoured to be on the verge of administration and closure. He instigated a series of improvements, replacing primitive tin huts with new bars and eating areas,[8] building the new Sedgefield Pavilion in 1991 and the Theakston Suite in 1995,[8] while increasing the number of corporate hospitality suites. Stable facilities were improved, not only for the horses, but for the stable staff, jockeys, owners and trainers. After Scotto's death in 1996 the course’s future was uncertain,[8] though a state-of-the-art weighing room complex was constructed in 1998, with better facilities for jockeys, officials and medical staff.[8]

In 1999, the future of the course was questioned after a horrific incident in a novices' chase. Three horses were killed after three riderless horses (one of which was among the fatalities) ran into the remainder of the field after running up the chase track the wrong way.[9] The racecourse had just narrowly avoided closure for the third time that century. The purchase of the course by Northern Racing, which would themselves be merged with Arena Leisure to form Arena Racing Company in 2012,[10] was completed in 2001.[11] Since then they have invested considerable money into the racecourse.[8]

A race at the course in 2025

£4mn plans were announced in 2003 to construct an all-weather track at the racecourse whilst maintaining regular jump meetings, with the intention for the course to be ready by summer 2004.[11] The plan would have also seen improvements to the jumps course and facilities for spectators,[11] along with enhancements for the flood-prone stables and parade ring.[12] Sedgefield Borough Council gave their approval, with traffic concerns from locals mitigated by expectations that crowds for the all-weather meetings would only be around 800 as opposed to the 3,000 usual for jumps fixtures.[12] The plans never came to fruition, however, and the course still only stages National Hunt racing.

The racecourse continues to be criticised for its comparatively high fatality rate, with many serious incidents having taken place in recent years. The racecourse was deemed the worst in the country for equine fatalities in the year up to March 2008, with eleven having occurred in that time.[13] After this, the course worked with the British Horseracing Authority to implement improvements, including an irrigation system and a reduction in the number of runners in each race.[14] Despite this, Animal Aid demanded the course's closure in 2013 after three horses died within an hour at a meeting.[14] Another incident occurred in 2022, when a meeting was abandoned after five of the planned seven races when two horses died after the fifth race, with the bend into the home straight deemed unsafe.[15] In February 2023, plans were announced to upgrade the bend into the home straight by working on the entry radius and the overall camber,[16] and jockeys gave approval to resume racing that September.[17]

Course characteristics

The back straight in 2020

The racecourse is a left-handed, undulating oval with tight bends but easy fences on the chase course making falls or unseats fairly rare.[18][19] The run-in is fairly short and positions rarely change after the final flight,[18] despite there being a 12ft 9in climb in the last 75 yards.[20] A circuit is ten furlongs and there are eight fences or five hurdles to be jumped per circuit.[18] There is a steep climb at the end of the back straight yet much of the home straight is steeply downhill.[20] The ground can become testing in winter, when jockeys may send their horses towards the outside rail in search of better ground.[18][21]

For many years the run from the last fence, an open ditch, to the winning post was 525 yards, even longer than the run-in on the Grand National course at Aintree.[20] This was because the obstacle nearest the finishing line was a water jump,[20] which cannot be the first or last fence in a race. In 1994 it was replaced by an ordinary plain fence, and it is now jumped on the final circuit, making a run-in of conventional length.

Durham National

The racecourse generally hosts rather mediocre meetings, yet the Durham National (first staged in 1955)[22][a] is an exception. This is a steeplechase run at an October meeting over the long distance of three miles and five furlongs.[23] One of the most popular winners in recent years was Fatehalkhair,[18] a cast-off from one of the major flat race stables, who went on to win twenty races. Thirteen of them were over jumps, and they were all at Sedgefield. The 2021 winner, Hewick, meanwhile, went on to be a Galway Plate, bet365 Gold Cup, American Grand National and King George VI Chase winner.[24]

References

  1. ↑ "2026 Fixture List" (PDF). British Horseracing Authority. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
  2. ↑ "Sedgefield Racecourse". Sedgefield Racecourse. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sedgefield Racecourse History". Greyhound Derby. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Gill 1975, p. 192.
  5. ↑ "The RS Surtees Society Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of his Death". The Field. 26 June 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  6. ↑ "The Jaundiced Genius". The Spectator. 30 December 1995. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  7. ↑ "Sedgefield". Great British Racing. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "About Us". Sedgefield Racecourse. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  9. ↑ "Racing: Poor training blamed for 'batrtlefield' [sic]". The Independent. 18 February 1999. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  10. ↑ "Arena Racing Co now the largest racecourse operator in UK". ThoroughbredNews. 21 August 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 "Artificial racetrack plans put forward by course". The Northern Echo. 15 February 2003. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  12. 1 2 "Course set for all-year racing". The Northern Echo. 3 July 2003. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  13. ↑ "Racecourse named worst in country for horse deaths". The Northern Echo. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  14. 1 2 "Closure debate after Sedgefield Racecourse horse deaths". Teesside Live. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  15. ↑ "Sedgefield races abandoned after two horses fatally injured". BBC Sport. 3 November 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  16. ↑ "Sedgefield Racecourse Track Investment Plans Confirmed". Sedgefield Racecourse. 22 February 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  17. ↑ "'No negatives' as Sedgefield gets all clear from trial jockeys to resume racing". Racing Post. 22 September 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sedgefield Course Guide". At The Races. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  19. ↑ "Sedgefield - Course Map". Racing Post. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Gill 1975, p. 191.
  21. ↑ "Sedgefield Racecourse Guide". Betting Sites UK. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  22. ↑ "Sedgefield Racecourse braced for "biggest race" with history of half a decade". Darlington & Stockton Times. 13 October 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
  23. ↑ "2025 Durham National Result". Racing Post. 19 October 2025. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  24. ↑ "King George VI Chase: Hewick comes through late to claim dramatic victory". BBC Sport. December 26, 2023.
  1. ↑ The headline for the Darlington & Stockton Times article used as a reference here should say 'half a century' rather than 'half a decade', and is a mistake on the part of the newspaper

Bibliography

  • Gill, James (1975). Racecourses of Great Britain. London: Barrie & Jenkins. ISBN 0-2142-0090-6.

54°38′46.92″N 1°27′58.87″W / 54.6463667°N 1.4663528°W / 54.6463667; -1.4663528

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