Racing: Ascot puts on parade its plans for supremacy

Richard Edmondson
Friday 28 June 2002 00:00 BST
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The Ascot grandstands are to suffer the same fate as London Bridge, to be replaced by a £180m development which management believe will make the Royal racecourse the best in the world.

Planning permission was submitted yesterday for a project which will include movement of the current course and paddock, a 190-room hotel with restaurant and health club, as well as the new stand made notable by a huge, glass-walled promenade and concourse, the galleria.

Work is expected to begin in the autumn of 2004 and finish in time for the Royal meeting of 2007. In the interim, arrangements will be made to stage the Royal cards, though there are threats to the course's other principal King George and Festival Of British Racing meetings. "The only thing we are saying is that we won't miss a Royal meeting," Douglas Erskine-Crum, the course chief executive, said yesterday.

Ascot has been the site of Royal racing since 1711 and, in the more modern era, has been redeveloped roughly every 50 years.

The present stands are 40 years old and other buildings on the site go back a century. Plans to replace them, which are already five years old, are designed to maintain and even enhance Ascot's standing in the global turf order.

"Whilst excellent nationally, we concluded that the current racecourse facilities would fall behind unless we redeveloped and we wanted to be the best," Erskine-Crum said. "Shortcomings include an unimpressive arrival and welcome. There is no grand entrance. In fact, there are lots of different entrances all over the racecourse and you wouldn't know you were coming into one of the great racecourses of the world.

"It has been a real challenge for the management team to provide the standards that are required by customers today. We thought about refurbishments and other options, but if we didn't redevelop we have no doubt we would have slid rather slowly downhill, first internationally and then nationally. Ascot intends to build the finest racecourse in the world."

Detailed planning and preparation of the new Ascot began in 1997 in conjunction with lead designer Rod Sheard, the man responsible for the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Stadium Australia for the 2000 Olympics, and various racecourses around the world.

His vision is a move away from the large box appearance of the current main enclosure. Its replacement features an arched parasol roof and looks like a flying-saucer spaceship hugging the terrain. Plans show stepped viewing terraces at either end.

Most striking of all though is the galleria, the "environmental lung" which runs 350 metres through the centre of the stands. Its pillars are "structural trees", in keeping with the flora of the English countryside.

The hotel will be on the western edge and within the grandstand, and incorporated for viewing purposes on racedays. Ascot have not ruled out adding a casino in time.

The amenities in the Silver Ring will be a moveable feast. Only at the Royal meeting will the area be fully functional and serviced by temporary structures.

There will be opposition to the relocation of the sylvan paddock, which is among the most picturesque in the world. The area it currently occupies is to be renamed "the Lawns" and dedicated solely to trees and strolling, which management believe will allow a "garden party atmosphere".

The present straight mile track is to moved 42m northwards, away from the current stand, leading to more space between the main buildings and the High Street. This allows for a new, centrally-located parade ring. There will be stepped, undercover viewing of this area which doubles as the winners' enclosure for 9,000 racegoers (from the current paddock capacity of 3,000), plus views from the new stand.

The overall capacity will stay at 80,000, though those at Ascot believe they could sell up to 130,000 tickets on Ladies' Day. The expectation is for increased comfort, better circulation within the course precincts and improved viewing.

An extra track may also be added to the existing one as Ascot positions itself to become the first European track to host racing's Olympics, the north American-based Breeders' Cup series.

"I don't think that the Breeders' Cup will travel anywhere for at least five years, and maybe 10, but we'd love it here," Erskine Crum added. "If the Breeders' Cup does travel it will need a dirt track and that is one of the reasons we are looking at an all-weather."

The chief executive has, for some time, been disillusioned with the small fields at his course for another sphere of the sport, the winter game. "National Hunt racing is here to stay, certainly through this redevelopment, but, in the longer term, who knows?" he said. "We can't give any guarantees that anything is sacrosanct at Ascot for the next 20 years."

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