New Look July Course Ready for Action
Monday 11th June, 2007
NEWMARKET'S July Course was unveiled to the media today following its £10m redevelopment and is now ready for the first raceday of the summer season on Friday week, 22nd June, when Australian rock band INXS will appear live in concert after racing. It is the first major redevelopment on Newmarket’s summer racecourse since the early 1930’s.
The redevelopment has focused on the area behind the grandstands in the Premier and Grandstand & Paddock Enclosures. The racecourse perimeter has been pushed out by up to 20 metres on to National Stud land, adding up to 4,000 square metres in additional space for a host of brand new facilities.
New entrance buildings lead into an entirely new landscape, dominated by two timber-clad pavilions housing new a new restaurant, café and bars. There are also new toilets (permanent female toilets increase by 195% and male by 150%), Tote outlets and an enlarged and modernised Premier Enclosure restaurant and owners & trainers bar.
Inside the stands, many of the bars and catering outlets have been modernised, particularly in the Grandstand & Paddock Enclosure. The landscaping has included the planting of 31 new mature beech trees at a cost of £100,000.
As part of the redevelopment, the boundaries of the three Enclosures have been realigned to optimise the allocation of facilities and to reflect the growing demand for Premier Enclosure admission. Maximum crowd capacity will increase from 19,000 to 21,500 with all the additional 2,500 in the Premier Enclosure, the capacity of which goes up from 10,000 to 12,500. The Grandstand & Paddock Enclosure is unchanged at 7,000 and the Garden Enclosure (formerly known as the Family Enclosure) unchanged at 2,000.
The area behind the stands that is in the Premier Enclosure has increased by 86%, from 3,320 square metres to 6,176 square metres, though Premier Enclosure crowd capacity has increased by only 25%, while the area behind the stands in Grandstand & Paddock has increased by 10%, though the capacity is unchanged. There will therefore be more room and greatly enhanced comfort for everyone in these two enclosures
It is the first major phase of an overall masterplan for the July Course – the next phase, likely to take place in four to five years’ time, will see the head-on stand replaced and improvements to the weighing room.
“I am confident that what we have done will have a huge impact on levels of racegoer satisfaction,” said Newmarket’s Managing Director, Lisa Hancock.
“We believe that this is the biggest redevelopment on a British racecourse not to involve the grandstands themselves and I would certainly be confident that it is the racecourse redevelopment which is the most sympathetic to the environment around it. Everything has been geared around retaining and indeed enhancing the unique character and charm of our much loved summer racecourse.
“Virtually the entire redevelopment has been devoted to improving facilities for the ordinary racegoer – nothing has been spent on corporate facilities.
“We will start to make use of the extra crowd capacity in steps, carefully monitoring and reviewing how all the facilities cope at each step to ensure that levels of customer service and comfort are not being compromised.
“We race on 22 and 23 June and again on 29 and 30 June, after which comes the three-day Ritz Club July Festival, our major summer highlight, from 11 to 13 July. I am hoping that Frankie Dettori will officially open the new facilities before racing on Wednesday 11 July.”
For more information click here
To view the development fact sheet click here
11th June 2007
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Lisa Hancock, 07885 399 432
Alistair Haggis, 07884 026 487