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Horseracing in Jersey A rich tradition brought up to date H


By JOHN HENWOOD (aka Bobsbest)


He is a past president of the Jersey Race Club and former Senior Steward of the Channel Islands Racing & Hunt Club, the sport's Jersey regulator.


ere’s a pub quiz question that will catch out most sports enthusiasts,


“What is Britain’s southern-most racecourse?” Hands up everyone who said Newton Abbot: well, you’re wrong.


That charming Devon course is the most southerly course in England and for that matter the United Kingdom, but Jersey is not part of the UK and it is home of Les Landes, the southern-most racecourse in the British Isles.


Contact Details: W:www.jerseyraceclub.com E: jerseyrace@gmail.com T: 863484


It’s not just that Les Landes is further south than the rest that marks it out as special; surely there is no other racecourse where the racing takes place against such a spectacular backdrop as the ruins of Grosnez Castle and the sea beyond with Sark and Guernsey in the distance. But Jersey did not always have such a magnificent setting for the sport.


Horseracing in Jersey has deep roots and it has taken place in many locations whilst being patronised by the highest in the land.


Racing was introduced to the Page 90 Jersey's Olympic Legacy


traced back to 1836 when Sir John Le Couteur secured the promise of


Island, as in so many other parts of the British Empire, by the military. It was seen as a means of improving the training of both horses and riders while serving the additional purpose of providing a distraction for bored soldiers.


It


was in the reign of George III that the first recorded race meeting was held, in 1789 at St. Aubin’s Bay. Royal patronage can be


William IV to donate a silver cup to be raced for at Greve d’Azette, but sadly it must have slipped the royal memory because it seems the cup was never received. The next year a new monarch ascended the throne and Queen Victoria graciously donated a trophy. In each subsequent year until the outbreak of the Second World War the Crown presented a new trophy.


As far as can reliably be established Jersey has never had a fox population, but this did not prevent the establishment of a hunt in 1876 when one Lieutenant Lascelles started a pack of drag hounds. It was this initiative that involved the local farming community in organised equestrian sport and soon the racing and hunting fraternities became integrated, ultimately forming the Jersey Drag Hunt and Chase Club.


It is not clear where Jersey’s first proper racecourse was established probably because a number of informal sites were used and later discarded. There is evidence that racing took place in Trinity at Jardin d’Olivet and at Vinchelez in St Ouen, but Grouville Common has the principal claim to the title.


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