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16
Aug 2020
Ripon holds season's biggest race behind closed doors
The Great St. Wilfrid Handicap - Ripon's most valuable race of the season and its biggest annual crowd puller - took place today behind closed doors.
With government restrictions on mass gatherings preventing racegoers from attending meetings across the UK, there was no roar of the crowd to be heard as the 19 thoroughbreds hurtled down the track, in the six furlong sprint.
As ever, the race attracted some of the leading sprint handicappers from the country's top racing stables, but a sign of how the lockdown that has affected racing since March, came with the fact that prize money has been reduced.
The total prize pot for the first six horses home in the Class 2 race was £39,348, compared with last season's prize money for the William Hill sponsored sprint of £73,779.
This year's winner was the 4-1 favourite Staxton, ridden by Duran Fentiman and trained by Tim Easterby. The 5-year-old gelding won £24,900 for owners the Ontoawinner 10 & Partner partnership.
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In the 120 years that the Boroughbridge Road track, widely known as the 'garden racecourse' has been holding meetings, it has never faced the kind of challenge that the coronavirus crisis has posed.
The season's fixtures should have begun in April, but the first meeting staged behind closed doors, took place on the evening of June 20, with strict hygiene and social distancing measures in place for the limited number of jockeys, stall handlers, stable staff, stewards, course staff, satellite TV and media representatives allowed through the gates.
Ahead of the June 20 meeting, clerk of the course and managing director of Ripon Racecourse Company, James Hutchinson told the Stray Ferret:
He added:
Ripon has a horseracing heritage going back to 1664, when the first recorded races were held on Bondgate Green. Over more than 230 years, other venues were used for meetings and in 1723, history was made when the first-ever race for lady riders was held in the city.
On 6 August 1900, the current course held its inaugural meeting and since that time the racecourse has remained the city's leading sporting venue, attracting local residents and visitors from far afield.
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