It would be totally absurd to pick out the areas in racing where you can just maybe find some things to be optimistic over when all they would be is specks of light against a background of gloom, leaving one with a feeling that this truly has become a cursed sport.
The news that Graham Wylie, in the week that the British Masters Golf is held in his back garden, has announced that he is curtailing his horse racing interests does not come as a shock as his once enthusiastic restocking with quality store horses and classy ex flat racers had already ceased.
It is also an item of news that ends hopes that he would return his focus to the north of England where he began his racing interests with Howard Johnston, who despite taking a hammering on the forums by those claiming that he did not deserve the quality of animal Wylie placed with him, rewarded his loyal owners faith by bringing him by far his most successful days which were not matched after the trainer lost his licence and the horses were shared between Willie Mullins, and to a lesser extent Paul Nichols.
Because many were yearning without hope for a return to the the heady 1970's and 1980's when the top half of the country was a match for any other region in addition to the whole of Ireland when comparing the quality of national hunt horses in training, many were complaining when Wylie came on the scene, using his instant success as a sign of how poor the northern jumping scene had become.
This was indeed so if you obstinately felt the need to forever compare with two golden decades in the past, but by Christ looking at the state of the jumping scene north of the Trent now, we were spoilt during the Wylie era as in addition there were more Trevor Hemmings owned animals turning up at the courses, plus Ashleybank Investments, formerly the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, were responsible for providing a steady supply of promising performers to Lenny Lungo who now had a bigger share of animals carrying those colours than those housed at Greystoke.
And not to forget that Robert Ogden had a spell during this period when he had some seriously good jumpers with northern trainers - many forget that Ad Hoc began his career with Lungo, Kingsmark spent the first half of his with Martin Todhunter, while Squire Silk had his best days with Andy Turnell.
Whilst quality national hunt performers are a rarity in those upper regions, the northern racecourses have somehow survived. To now at least, but regrettably we must now be nearing the time when venues will begin to fold and some of those in the top region of the country will be well and truly in dire straits. For the time being Edinburgh has been rescued but one can be certain that the few years that separated Lanark and Teeside Park/ Stockton perishing, will be shortened dramatically by the gap in between the next two northern courses to close.
It's nearly forty years since Stockton went. This at a time that the area was crucified economically which would have been apparent when the industrial chimneys and furnaces that formed part of the skyline when you gazed over to the horizon from inside the course, stopped billowing out their clouds of smoke.
Racecourses are now apt to be more discreet when the subject of their financial viability is raised. In times gone by these issues were discussed more openly, making it common public knowledge which venues were on their uppers
Look back through newspaper archives and you will find stories appearing in the national press predicting which venues were set for the chop. And more often than not, the gloomy predictions came true - not least from one story which appeared in April 1963, predicting that no less than a dozen courses faced imminent closure, with brief but to the point reasons provided, which all amounted to why the levy board planned to withdraw support for the tracks on the list.
Stockton was on the list, being cited as an economically unsound proposition due to the cost of much needed modernisation along with the fact that Redcar, which was described as having more crowd drawing power, was situated only thirteen miles away. It took longer than predicted for the track to fold. Edinburgh also made the list, with claims that it was not economically viable due to a lack of space curbing potential development.
All told, five of the twelve cursed courses survived into the future with Folkestone marching on for a further half century. The others that survived were Pontefract, which has certainly gone and defied the doom mongers as it appeared not to have much to rejoice about being put on the black list not only due to costly building needs, but also having subsidence and drainage issues; and the West Norfolk Hunt, which soon after changed it's fixture name under rules to Fakenham.
The seven locations that the omens unfortunately came true for soon after were Manchester, Rothbury, Lincoln, Lewes, Bogside and Woore. The other venues that have gone under since that article appeared are Birmingham, Alexandra Park, Lanark, Wye - with Towcester joining Folkestone, in becoming a recent victim.
The venue that beat all the spells that appeared cast upon on it was none other than Aintree, which came perilously close to succumbing in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. Once the property became part of the portfolio of racecourses under the Jockey Club Racecourses banner, massive investment was put into a costly redeveloping programme which has paid off, meaning it's future is secure even if the same cannot be said of the ' Grand National In Name Only Handicap Chase.'.
There was however a near miss for another premium jumping track in the same ownership. With their business heads on, Jockey Club Racecourses felt that it would make sound financial sense to accept an offer for Kempton Park from property developers, then use the money to plough funds into Sandown Park where the King George V1 Chase would be transfered over to.
Thankfully, what amounted to a scare for many racing fans has blown over for the time being at least but logic dictates that if the funds of even the most successfully operated racecourse ownership groups had to come under review long before Covid 19 had been heard of, then the fates will have cast spells on a number of racetracks whose futures will be in jeopardy.
And those of us who turn our nose up at the courses that have long gone after the cult crowds, who go along for a noise booze up, have the cheek to enjoy themselves, and quite like a concert afterwards, may after all be forced to have a rethink and eat our words, particular if racing's share of the betting pie continues to dwindle.
image taken by author - Munich street theatre
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