These races, since the closure, have been transferred to Sandown and Newbury. One top National Hunt race, which also had its home on the Esher course, was, believe it or not, the Triumph Hurdle, which, as you are all well aware, is now one of the most important races at the annual Cheltenham Festival.

Alexandra Place

Our second visit to a vanished racecourse in the London area takes us to Alexandra Palace, which was a very popular track with an extremely strong local customer base. Nicknamed "Ally Pally", this course did not host or boast about anything like Group racing or whatever, for there was no major race on its resume, as far as I know, but with over a dozen meetings every year, it was always ticking over very nicely, thank you sir. In reality, its only dubious claim to fame was that it did stage the first of the now prevalent evening race meetings in Britain.

This certainly suited the working locals, for it gave them the ammunition for many a good night out with their friends. I do suppose that, inevitably, the course was bound to be sold for building sites, for the land it was situated on was literally worth its weight in gold, being that it was right in London, etc.

We now go to the Midlands, where once was located the City of Manchester Racecourse. This track, when in its heyday, traditionally always staged the very last day of the Flat Racing season, in a class-filled programme that included the last big betting handicap of the season, the Manchester November Handicap, on which the betting market was normally buzzing for weeks beforehand. The race was run over a mile and a half, on the usually expected heavy ground in the first week of November, and indeed, had produced many a turn-up for the books! What was the most famous horse to run in it?

Well, I suppose it would have to be Knock Hard, trained by Vincent O'Brien, in 1952, when the stable, then on a winning roll, attempted to bring off a substantial gamble (from 10/1 to 4/1), only to be pipped by the Jack Jarvis trained Summer Rain, who had finished third to Tulyar in the Epsom Derby of that year. Knock Hard, if you remember, went on to win the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in 1953. A unique achievement, don't you think!

Your Trio for this Saturday are as follows:- Select, Army of Angels, and Badalona, all running at the Newmarket meeting…GOOD HUNTING!

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