Sea Pigeon, Julie Krone and Princess Anne - Redcar marks 150 years

Racing figures connected to Redcar recalled some of the landmark moments to take place at the seaside track, which marks its 150th anniversary on Tuesday. The first meeting at the course was held on August 9, 1872 following years of racing on the Redcar sands.

The Zetland name has been associated with racing in the North Yorkshire town for generations, with Lawrence Mark Dundas, the fourth Marquess of Zetland, taking over as Redcar chairman and managing director from his father in 1981.

In 2018 Dundas handed over to John Sanderson, who has been involved with the course for "a long time" and recalls US jockey Julie Krone being lured over to ride at a meeting in 1992.

"Nowadays we're very used to female riders, but it was a revelation in those times," he said. "The present Lord Zetland paid for her to come, she was very well known in America and it got a lot of publicity. It was a special thing that Redcar did."

The Hall of Fame jockey lived up to her billing by riding a treble from five rides. Redcar was also the venue for Princess Anne's first winner, Gulfland, in 1986.

Julie Krone: Hall of Fame jockey paid a special visit to Redcar in 1992Credit: Edward Whitaker

As for equine stars, the mighty Sea Pigeon, trained in Malton by Peter Easterby, won the Vaux Gold Tankard at the course in 1977, 1978 and 1980.

"The Vaux Gold Tankard was run in July during Goodwood week and it was the richest handicap in Europe at the time," Sanderson said.

"It was moved to the spring bank holiday Monday to go with the Zetland Gold Cup and Lester Piggott came and rode in the big two races and the crowd was 25,000."

Peter Easterby's son Tim is the modern-day leading trainer at Redcar with 144 winners from 1,891 runners. He said: "It's been a good track for all of our family and we've had some good horses run there over the years.

"It's a wonderful track to run horses at, it's straight and flat with no tight bends. We've always run a lot of horses there, it's a nice place to run a two-year-old first time out, and it's a track we need in racing."

Redcar celebrated the milestone at its meeting on Saturday with the feature Celebrating 150 Years Of Redcar Racecourse Handicap won by Lion Tower for Northallerton trainer Grant Tuer.

The track's biggest race of the season is the Listed Two-Year-Old Trophy in October, which has been won by subsequent Group 1 winners Somnus and Limato.

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