A new all-weather schooling strip has been opened in Newmarket by Jockey Club Estates as part of their expansion of the town’s national hunt facilities.
The two-and-a-half furlong schooling strip with three hurdles and two steeplechase fences was opened at the beginning of June.
William Gittus, managing director of Jockey Club Estates said: “While Newmarket trained horses are predominantly known for their success in the major flat races, we aim to provide for horses under both codes.
“Our aim is to produce high-class facilities which cater for all types of horse. Each winner prepared on our training grounds is a source of pride to us. We constantly review and upgrade the quality of our facilities and we have invested heavily in state of the art artificial surfaces.”
The completion of the project coincides with the release of figures by Jockey Club Estates, which show a substantial increase in the number of winners trained on their facilities in both Newmarket and Lambourn in the first five months of this year.
Mr Gittus added: “A thriving training centre has positive knock-on effects, not only for the racing industry but for the local economy as well. Consequently it is very encouraging that the number of horses based in Newmarket and Lambourn are increasing, and even more rewarding that the numbers of winners from both locations are increasing at a higher rate.”
John Maxse, director of communications at Jockey Club Estates told H&H: “The all-weather schooling strip opened at the start of this month and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback so far— including from trainers Lucy Wadham and Neil King.”
Lucy Wadham told H&H: “It seems to ride very well and the jockeys liked it so we’re pleased. Dominic Elsworth was quite impressed by it when he tried it. We will be using it regularly — we do prefer grass but at this time of year when it’s dry it’s better to jump on. So we’ll probably be using the all-weather up until the autumn.”
The all weather schooling strip is also open to point-to-point trainers as well as non-Newmarket owners and trainers. For more details Tel: 07710 819442
