Sandown Park Racecourse

Sandown Park stands beside the small town of Esher in Surrey, just outside London. It is a racecourse set on gently rolling ground with sandy soil that drains quickly after rain. The site once belonged to a priory built by Henry II, but all its occupants died in the plague of 1349. Later a hospital stood there until it was demolished and the land became part of Sandown Farm. In 1875 the course opened as one of England’s first enclosed race meetings, charging every spectator at least half a crown. The racecourse is famous for five Grade One National Hunt races and the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes. In 1897 the Prince of Wales won the Eclipse on Persimmon, and in 1900 he won again on Diamond Jubilee. In 1948 the BBC broadcast the first live television pictures of horse racing from Sandown. The Whitbread Gold Cup, first run in 1957, is now the Bet365 Gold Cup and remains one of the season’s highlights. The course has also hosted concerts by UB40, Madness and Simply Red. Visitors walk from Esher station along a special exit that leads straight into the racecourse and Lower Green. The flat course rises after the start, drops twenty feet in the first hundred yards, then flattens before climbing steadily in the last half mile. The steeplechase track has eleven fences including the tricky ‘Railway’ trio and the ‘Pond’ fence three out. The hurdle course runs mainly on the back straight with six flights in total.