Racecourse groups may be badgered and browbeaten - but property developers are made of stern and patient stuff

It was in 2017 that we were last informed that Kempton was on its way out, to be replaced by a housing estate, with the unspoken proviso that planning matters move at a glacial pace and nothing much would happen any time soon.

The view of most racing people was that this was a crass betrayal by the Jockey Club, although there was a certain brutal logic in copping a hefty sum for this prime edge-of-London site.

I remember thinking back another five years, to the day in 2012 when Folkestone was closed by Arena Leisure, temporarily so it said, although in 2016 it was revealed that it fell within the boundaries of a proposed new garden town development of 8,500 houses.