'It's an utter betrayal of jump racing' - why Paul Kealy is furious about losing Kempton

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Christmas is coming and it's supposed to be the season of goodwill, but I've been in two minds this week, wondering whether to talk about some of the excellent racing we've seen or just rant about the Jockey Club's utter betrayal of jump racing.

In the end I decided to do both, but briefly.

I could have gone on for ages about Kempton, as it’s relatively local and, as a jumps fan, I love going racing there. I go to the King George meeting when I can, pretty much always go to what was the old Racing Post Chase meeting and quite often see off the Cheltenham Festival with another day's jumping at Kempton on the Saturday after the Gold Cup.

I don't give two hoots about all-weather Flat racing, so wouldn't say I patronise the course when it stages that, but then attracting crowds was never part of the reason for digging up the old turf course and installing that monstrosity anyway.

I had thought - rather naively, like many I dare say - that the uproar generated by the news back in 2017 that Kempton was likely to be bulldozed in favour of 3,000 new houses had actually saved it.

But it turns out the Jockey Club had silently and secretly passed the death sentence on Kempton just months later when it signed over the rights to develop to Redrow. That means they were not only prepared to see the back of the course; they actually wanted to.

It struck me that the announcement of huge investments in other Jockey Club courses, Cheltenham and Aintree, was cynically chosen, politician-style, as the chance to bury some bad news: "Look at how much we're going to spend on our marquee courses. Aren't we doing so much good for racing? Oh, by the way, Kempton's finished."

The sad thing is that now we know the Jockey Club effectively washed their hands of the course seven years ago, there is nothing anyone but Redrow can do about it.

Nicky Henderson and anyone else can "jump up and down on this" as much as they like, but it won't make a blind bit of difference. Developers don't care. They play the long game, and they always win in the end.

If the chance comes - and it's doing just that with the passing of the government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill - then Kempton will disappear off the map.

I've seen enough on social media to know that not everyone agrees, but I find that desperately sad.

Racing Post+ subscribers have access to all of Paul Kealy's tips. Read his thoughts on today's action and the weekend racing here:

'He ran an absolute blinder from a terrible draw' - Paul Kealy with three all-weather tips from Chelmsford  

'He can be competitive if in the mood' - Paul Kealy with four Saturday picks at Ascot and Haydock 

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