Facilities have improved, now Wetherby's racing must be revived

Having not been to Wetherby for a number of years it was good to return to a racecourse I visited on a regular basis during my university days two decades ago. It has changed considerably, in some ways for the better, in others for the worse.

Nobody can dispute the track, run for Wetherby's shareholders by International Racecourse Management, looks completely different to how it did prior to the group's arrival. There is a new grandstand and another is being built, while a handsome weighing room complex adorns one side of the paddock.

The racecourse itself also looks different and not simply because the once wonderfully iconic, but now portable, fences have swapped sides with the hurdles up the home straight.