Paul Nicholls has broken his silence over the plans to close Kempton and build on the famous racetrack, expressing “dread” at the prospect and pressing the Jockey Club to explain its thinking. Nicholls, the champion jumps trainer in 10 of the past 11 years, went on to insist that Ascot, rather than Sandown, should be the home of the King George VI Chase if Kempton does eventually close.
“Like everyone else … I was shocked when the news broke in midweek,” Nicholls said on Sunday, adding that shock had since given way to confusion.
“At first, it sounded as though the decision to build up to 3,000 houses on the track was a done deal. But as the days have passed it has become clear that there is massive opposition to the plans in plenty of quarters including, crucially, the councillors on the local authorities.
“Will building really take place, was a secret deal agreed behind closed doors before the announcement or could this be a white elephant? At this stage it is impossible to say.”
Nicholls sounded frankly sceptical on the subject of the investment the Jockey Club says it plans to make over the next decade, which it put at the top of its Tuesday press release containing the bad news about Kempton. “We’ve been told that £100m will be raised from the sale, yet that is balanced by the Jockey Club’s current debt of £115m. Yet in the next breath, their group chief executive, Simon Bazalgette, is promising an investment of £500m in our sport over the next decade.
“That type of mega funding for jump racing from the bottom upwards sounds terrific to me but I surely cannot be the only one wondering where all this money is coming from … I feel strongly that, to have a balanced view, I need to know a lot more detail about these startling proposals before making up my mind.”
Nicholls is by no means alone in his call for more information, though the Jockey Club has repeatedly insisted its decision to sell Kempton has nothing to do with its level of debt, which its officials describe as manageable for a group with its enormous asset base. There appears to have been no consultation with jumps trainers in advance of the announcement on Tuesday and the first that any of them knew of it was when Club staffers made courtesy calls less than an hour beforehand.
Nicholls, who was taking a short holiday abroad at the time, declined requests for comment until he could return to Britain and consider the proposals. He finally spoke through his Betfair column.
“I have had so many magical days at Kempton,” said the 54-year-old, whose nine wins in the King George amount to a record, outstripping the five achieved by Fulke Walwyn and François Doumen. “So, obviously, I dread the thought of the doors at Kempton closing for the final time and hope it doesn’t happen.”
While the Jockey Club is determined to keep the King George at one of its own tracks and favours Sandown, Nicholls is among those who would prefer to see the race moved to independently run Ascot. The Queen’s track would, he said, be “a much more suitable venue … as it is an outstanding jumps track with excellent facilities and the necessary infrastructure to accommodate a large crowd.
“Just imagine more than 30,000 jumping enthusiasts at Ascot on Boxing Day for the most important jumps race in midwinter. That would be superb, much better than the race being held at Sandown, which would be packed out with half that amount of people. Plus the fact that the ground is almost always bottomless there at that time of year.”
Meanwhile, Nico de Boinville is nearing a return to action, having been sidelined for two full months by the Cheltenham fall that broke his right arm. “We’re nearly there,” said the 27-year-old jockey, principally employed by Nicky Henderson. He nevertheless declined to put a timescale on his return. “I spent last week in France, riding out for Emmanuel Clayeux and I’ve been doing a bit of schooling as well.”
