North, south, east, west: the changing landscape of our tracks

1The oldest horserace still in existence is the , first run in Yorkshire in 1519, while the was inaugurated in 1599 and is still run today, but the oldest surviving racecourse in Britain is Chester, where racing was first recorded in 1540.

2 In 1839 there were 153 racecourses in Britain, compared to the 60 that exist today. The newest racecourse in Britain is Chelmsford City in Essex, which opened in 2008 as Great Leighs – the first such opening since Taunton in 1927 – closed a year later, then reopened under its new name and new management in 2015.

3 The biggest racecourse in Britain by capacity is Epsom. The Surrey venue can hold 120,000 people – mainly out on the Downs, outside the permanent stands – but pales in comparison to Tokyo, which can cater for 223,000.