Newmarket's July Course was unveiled to the media today following its £10 million redevelopment and is now ready for the first raceday of the summer season on Friday week, June 22, 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 1930s.
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."
JULY COURSE REDEVELOPMENT FACT SHEET
Redevelopment Overview
- The redevelopment is the first major phase of a comprehensive masterplan for the July Course, aimed at bringing its facilities up to the requirements of the 21st century without losing the course's unique character and rustic charm.
- The current phase is centred primarily on the area behind the grandstands in the Premier Enclosure (formerly Members' Enclosure) and Grandstand & Paddock Enclosure, though there has also been extensive modernisation of bars and catering and betting outlets inside several of the stands.
- The main aim has been to create more space for greatly enhanced crowd circulation together with much easier access to brand new toilets, bars, restaurants, cafes, other food outlets, betting outlets, areas of seating and other facilities.
- NO changes have been made to: the parade ring, the pre-parade ring, the winners' enclosure or the front of the stands. Replacing the head-on stand and improving the weighing room will be part of phase two of the masterplan assuming that funding can be secured. Realistically, phase two will be at least 4 or 5 years away.
Redevelopment - Scheme Summary
- The July Course perimeter has been extended back by 20 metres at its maximum on to part of the National Stud paddock which is used for car parking, so that an additional 4,000 square metres has been gained to the rear of the grandstands to provide additional space to enhance crowd circulation and comfort.
- All the ancillary buildings behind the grandstands in the Premier Enclosure (formerly Members) and Grandstand & Paddock Enclosure have been demolished - except the weighing room, main Premier Enclosure/Owners & Trainers entrance and saddling boxes.
- These have been replaced with:
- new entrance buildings and turnstiles along the realigned rear perimeter
- two eye-catching new pavilion buildings, linked with an aerial walkway, housing a new bistro, café and bars
- new toilets, totes and betting shops
- a new, enlarged owners & trainers bar
- The July Restaurant at the rear of the first side-on grandstand in the Premier Enclosure has been modernised and enlarged, with a conservatory at the back.
- Many of the bars and catering outlets inside the stands have been renovated and modernised, notably the re-named Carroll House Bistro (formerly the July Platter), Ocean Swell Bar and Marwell Bar (formerly the Fountain Bar).
- Following a detailed assessment of the trees on the site, a number were identified as potentially dangerous and therefore needed to be cut down while a small number of others needed to be removed to facilitate the redevelopment. To replace them, a total of 31 semi-mature beech trees have been planted, ranging from 4 to 9 metres in height. In addition, a considerable amount of other landscaping has been done to ensure that the unique July Course environment is maintained and even enhanced.
- 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.
Redevelopment Facts & Figures
- Work commenced on 1 September 2006 and contract completion was on 24 May 2007. The main contractors were Kier Eastern from Wisbech, part of the Kier Group who also carried out Cheltenham Racecourse's recent redevelopment. The architects were Limbrick.
- The first racedays of the 2007 summer season are 22 and 23 June and the new facilities will be officially opened on the first day of the Ritz Club July Festival on Wednesday 11 July.
- Total cost £10 million.
- Increase in area behind the stands following perimeter realignment = 4,000 square metres. Maximum crowd capacity increases from 19,000 to 21,500. Premier Enclosure capacity up from 10,000 to 12,500; Grandstand & Paddock unchanged at 7,000; Garden Enclosure (formerly 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%.
- The area behind the stands in Grandstand & Paddock has increased by 10%, though the capacity is unchanged.
- There is a 195% increase in permanent female toilets and a 150% increase in permanent male toilets.
- All spoil from foundations and trenches has been re-used on site.
- Other figures:
o 21 kms underground ducting
o 175 kms of cabling
o 10,000 square metres of fabric roof structure
o Over 200 tonnes of steel
o 2,700 linear metres of timber decking (all certified by Forestry Stewardship Council from sustainable forest)
o 9,000 sq metres of new turf
LISA HANCOCKS'S JULY COURSE LAUNCH SPEECH
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the new-look July Course. I do hope you like what you can see out there. I think you'll agree that it looks a little different to when you were here the last time! It is some 70 years since the July Course benefited from a serious investment - the current stands were built between1931 and 1933 - so what has been undertaken here over the last nine months is really very noteworthy indeed in the recent history of Newmarket's much loved summer racecourse.
I must stress the obvious - although all the main works have been completed on time, there is not surprisingly still a great deal to be done in preparation for our first race meeting here on the evening of Friday, June 22, when a seven race card will climax with Australian rock band INXS appearing live on stage. It is a hive of activity out there and will remain so right through until Friday week. But, I hasten to add, we will be ready!
It has all gone extremely well and I am absolutely thrilled with the end product - the acid test, of course, will be how our racegoers respond, though we had many consultation sessions throughout the planning stage with representatives of our different customer groups to try to ensure that it delivers what our customers want. 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 the July Course.
Before we go out for a tour of the site, I will briefly take you through some of the headline points:
- The July Course perimeter has been extended back by 20 metres at its maximum on to part of the National Stud paddock which is used for car parking. As a result we have gained an additional 4,000 square metres out there, providing vital additional space to enhance crowd circulation and comfort.
- All the ancillary buildings that used to be out there, including the old perimeter buildings, have been demolished and replaced with:
o new entrance buildings and turnstiles along the realigned rear perimeter, providing a massively enhanced arrival experience
o two new eye-catching timber-clad pavilion buildings that dominate the landscape out there now, which are linked with an aerial walkway, and which house a new bistro, café, bars and toilets
o other new bars, toilets, totes and betting shops
o a new, enlarged owners & trainers bar
- In addition, the old July Restaurant where we are now, which we have renamed the Summer House Restaurant, has been completely modernised and enlarged with this conservatory, which should come into its own over the next couple of months.
- Inside several of the stands, there has been extensive modernization and renovation of the bars and catering and betting facilities, particularly in the Grandstand & Paddock Enclosure.
- From an environmental point of view, quite apart from the design of the new facilities and all the new landscaping, a total of 31 semi-mature beech trees have been planted at a cost of £100,000. They were hand-picked by Christian Mitchell, who has overseen the entire project for us, from forests in Belgium and Germany. They were then carefully uprooted, wrapped up, transported here and replanted. It was an amazing operation in itself. Beech trees are an intrinsic part of the July Course and lend so much to its character and charm. We lost a small number as a result of the redevelopment and several more that were old and deemed as dangerous by the local council, so it is great to be able to make up for this with the new trees.
- And finally, 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. Our 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 Family Enclosure unchanged at 2,000. We will make use of this extra capacity in a couple of 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.
I should add that 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.
One other thing I would point out is that the entire redevelopment has been geared around improving facilities for the ordinary racegoer. True, this restaurant is aimed at the top end and we have also increased the size of the owners & trainers facility, but everything else is for the ordinary racegoer in the Premier and Grandstand & Paddock Enclosures. None of the investment has been spent on the corporate market. Incidentally, our annual badgeholders are benefiting from a much larger marquee and garden area by the parade ring, so they should also be very pleased with the changes that we have made.
A few other interesting facts and figures for you:
" There is a 195% increase in permanent female toilets and a 150% increase in permanent male toilets. This was much needed, as I would be the first to admit. I should also point out that we now have mains water supply here so that we don't run out of water - the fact that we didn't have it before shows just how antiquated the facilities here were for a 21st century venue!
" The new bars and restaurants have been named after great July Course winners, such as Chief Singer, Royal Academy, Soviet Star, Oasis Dream, Stravinsky, Carroll House and Height of Fashion.
" Our new catering offers which Letheby & Christopher are providing are, I believe, both innovative and very competitively priced. Included in the packs which will be handed out shortly are the menus for the new-look Mozart's bistro and the brand new Stravinsky's café so that you can get an idea of what will be on offer.
" The rear elevation of the side-one grandstands can at last be seen properly now that all the old ancillary buildings, which encroached on to the rear of the stands, have been demolished. We have had all the brickwork steam-cleaned and that has made a huge and very positive difference.
" The new lighting around the redeveloped area looks particularly effective, something which you will really appreciate if you stay for the concert on one of the Newmarket Nights.
" The 2,700 linear metres of timber decking used in the redevelopment was all certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council as coming from sustainable forest.
" We have laid 9,000 square metres of new turf.
" All the spoil from the foundations and trenches has been re-used on site.
The total cost of the whole project was £10 million, delivered on budget and on time and I am very grateful to our main contractors, Kier Eastern, part of the Kier Group who also carried out Cheltenham Racecourse's recent redevelopment, our architects, Limbrick. But my biggest thank you goes to Christian Mitchell, whose tireless efforts to oversee it all and manage it from our side, from the drawing up of the first plans to these final days of fitting-out, have played such a vital part.
We race here for the first time, as I mentioned earlier, on Friday week and again the following afternoon. We have our second Friday evening and Saturday afternoon a week later and there is then a short gap before our big summer event, the Ritz Club July Festival from Wednesday the 11th to Friday the 13th of July. We are hoping that Frankie Dettori will officially open the new facilities at what is very much his local track at lunchtime on the 11th.
I must stress that this redevelopment is the first major phase of a comprehensive masterplan for the July Course, aimed at bringing its facilities up to the requirements of the 21st century without losing the course's rustic charm. BDP, who did the masterplans for Aintree and Wimbledon, deserve huge credit for producing a fantastic masterplan for us. Replacing the head-on stand and improving the weighing room will be two features of phase two, assuming that funding can be secured. Realistically, this is going to be at least 4 or 5 years away. The current phase has been undertaken in such a way that it will dovetail perfectly with phase two as and when that happens.
I am confident that what we have done in phase one will have a huge impact on levels of racegoer satisfaction which despite the previous shortcomings, were actually still remarkably very good, with the charm of the July Course apparently making up for the deficiencies of the facilities. The redevelopment was long overdue, however, and with sparkling new facilities and so much more space to move around, I hope that we will hit new heights this season.
I will view it all as a success if we have happy racegoers leading as a result to increased levels of repeat business and a higher spend per head thanks to the much improved access to catering facilities, bars and betting outlets. The business plan is based around this and not around charging inflated prices.
The new-look July Course will come into its own on the Friday Nights and at the Ritz Club July Festival, both of which promise to be extra-special this year. The Nights line-up is, in my opinion, our strongest ever, while the Ritz Club July Festival, which has been transformed in terms of the quality of its racing over the last six years, is now part of a new local Newmarket festival, which though starting in a relatively small way this year, will add to the interest surrounding that week. It all kicks off with a gala concert by the acclaimed classical pop group, G4, here on the evening of Tuesday the 10th of July. You will find details of all this in the press packs which are about to be handed out.
I would just like to highlight the Darley July Cup on the final day of the Ritz Club July Festival, Friday the 13th of July. It is Europe's most valuable sprint race with a purse of £375,000 and will hopefully attract a powerful Australian challenge this year. Many of you will be out looking at the Aussie sprinters, who arrived here 10 days or so ago, tomorrow morning and I am delighted to see Charles Barnett, the new Chief Executive at Ascot, and Nick Smith, Ascot's Head of PR, here with us today. Nick has worked extremely hard to recruit the horses for which we are very grateful. It will be hugely exciting to see the likes of Bentley Biscuit, Miss Andretti and Magnus come on to the Darley July Cup on the 13th of July and we wish them, and Takeover Target, well in the King's Stand Stakes and Golden Jubilee first of all.
Right, time to go out for a walk. If we can divide into two roughly equal groups. I will lead one group and Christian will lead the other and we'll talk you through what we've done.
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