City Racing inches closer to reality but huge challenges remain

City Racing, the proposal to stage racing on famous streets around the world, has always been an intriguing if unlikely idea. Seeing thoroughbreds in full flight down the Champs Elysees or the Mall would make for a stunning spectacle but the practical, financial and safety realities of staging horseracing on city centre streets has always made the proposal ambitious verging on the quixotic.

This week the ambitious proposal inched closer to the streets when organisers staged several trial races on their temporary artificial track, set up for the test run at Aintree racecourse and intriguingly laid out on a format that mirrors Constitution Hill where it joins The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. The chief executive of the company behind the project is Peter Phillips, the Queen's grandson.

The artificial track also got the seal of approval from jockeys and trainers involved in the demonstration races, with Jason Watson describing it as "similar to Newcastle and possibly even better". So, on the surface at least, everything seems set fair for City Racing to meet its plan of staging races in two city centres next year.