HEREFORD Racecourse

Interesting Facts

• Hereford racecourse is set just on the edge of Hereford town, and the setting really is beautiful.
• Racing at Hereford goes back a long way, with the first recorded race meeting held in August 1771. The first hurdle race was run there in 1840.
• Hereford closed in December 2012, ending more than 240 years of racing, but it reopened for National Hunt racing on 6 October 2016 in front of a crowd of around 4,500.
• The first race at the reopening meeting was won by Rather Be, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by Andrew Tinkler.
• The course is now owned by Herefordshire Council and run by Arena Racing Company, with racing from October to April.
• Even while it was closed to mainstream racing, the course was still used for Arabian racing and point-to-point meetings.
• In 1975 Hereford set a record of 219 runners in a single day, spread across 14 races.
• Hereford gained extra fixtures in the early 1970s after Stockton Racecourse closed, going from 9 racedays to 15.
• A reservoir was built in the middle of the course in 2018 so the track could be watered properly after hard ground forced meetings to be moved to Worcester.
• Inside the track is the Racecourse Ground, the only former first-class cricket venue in England still inside a racecourse. Worcestershire played there from 1919 to 1988.
• Hereford is popular with trainers for giving young horses their first runs and for warm-up races ahead of the big festivals.
• The Hereford is a big almost square racecourse of about a mile and a half.