Lingfield Park Racecourse

Lingfield Park Racecourse

300px Aerial view of Lingfield Park (May 2011)
Location	Lingfield, Surrey
Owned by	Arena Racing Company
Screened on	At The Races
Course type	Flat National Hunt
Official website

Lingfield Park Racecourse (commonly referred to as Lingfield) is a horse racing course at Lingfield in Surrey, United Kingdom. It is owned by the ARC Racing and Leisure Group, formerly Arena Leisure Plc.

Lingfield is best known as a winter all-weather flat-racing course; the track is Polytrack, rather than the usual turf found in the UK. There are only four other all weather courses in the UK, the others being at Southwell, Kempton, Wolverhampton and Chelmsford City (formerly Great Leighs Racecourse). Lingfield stages flat racing on turf in the summer and National Hunt races are also run on turf.

Lingfield Railway Station adjoins the course, served by trains from London to East Grinstead via Oxted.

History

The racecourse is located in a 450-acre (1.8 km²) estate and was opened in 1890 by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), who also agreed to let Lingfield incorporate the Prince of Wales feathers into its official heading. The course initially held jumps racing only, but in 1894 the Jockey Club granted permission for flat racing to be held. Racing has been held continuously ever since, with the only exception being during World War II when the War Office requisitioned the course. Ladbrokes sold the course in 1982 and the new owners installed flood defences on the estate to alleviate the flooding that had become a major problem in the years immediately after the war. A golf course was developed and this opened in June 1987. Arena Leisure purchased the course in 1991, and in 2001 made the decision to replace the Equitrack all weather surface with Polytrack, opening in November 2001. Other recent developments have been the re-laying of the back straight on the turf course in 2002/2003 and the construction of a £5.5 million grandstand in 2004. In early 2009 the course had another record broken as Matsunosuke became the highest rated horse to win on the all weather surface rated 112 or 117 by Racing Post rating. This was dubbed as the greatest all weather horse of all time in the UK.

The racecourse is featured in the 1954 film The Rainbow Jacket.

Notable races

Month	DOW	Race Name	Type	Grade	Distance	Age/Sex
February	Saturday	Cleves Stakes	A W Flat	Listed	6f	4yo +
March	Saturday	Winter Derby Trial	A W Flat	Listed	1m 2f	4yo +
March	Saturday	Winter Derby	A W Flat	Group 3	1m 2f	4yo +
March	Saturday	Hever Sprint Stakes	A W Flat	Listed	5f	4yo +
March	Saturday	Spring Cup	A W Flat	Listed	7f	3yo
April	Saturday	International Trial	A W Flat	Listed	1m	3yo
May	Saturday	Chartwell Fillies' Stakes	Flat	Group 3	7f	3yo + f
May	Saturday	Lingfield Oaks Trial	Flat	Listed	1m 3f 106y	3yo only f
May	Saturday	Lingfield Derby Trial	Flat	Listed	1m 3f 106y	3yo only c&g

Other races

• Churchill Stakes
• Fleur De Lys Fillies' Stakes
• Golden Rose Stakes
• Quebec Stakes
• River Eden Fillies' Stakes

External links

• Official website
• Course guide on GG.COM
• Course guide on At The Races