Vincent Hinde Collection

Manchester Racecourse

The first recorded noteworthy race meeting took place in Manchester at Kersal Moor in 1681, although it was 1730 before Baily’s Racing Register first provided detailed results from races held at Manchester. For a period from 1697 until 1701 the meeting took place at Barlow Moor, and may even have been staged at that venue as early as 1647. However, it was not until 1847 that the meeting first moved to Castle Irwell, taking place on Wednesday 26th May 1847 on a right handed track of barely a mile, remaining there until 1867. The Castle Irwell land was rented for £500 per annum from John Fitzgerald, MP, and a 1,000-seat grandstand was built, which served racegoers well until the lease expired in 1867. In that year John Fitzgerald, the owner of the land on which the racecourse stood, died and his son inherited the land and refused to renew the lease. From the meeting held on Tuesday 31st December 1867 until the 1901 meeting races took place at New Barns, Weaste, a 100 acre expanse in the Trafford Park region of Salford. Despite the land being marshy, leading at times to treacherous conditions, racing remained there until 1901, even after the death of John Fitzgerald in 1879. It was at this location that steeplechasing was first held in Manchester in May 1872, together with the inaugural running of the Lancashire Steeplechase in 1884. Three years later the November Handicap was launched, with the first winner being Polonaise. The full results of all Manchester November Handicaps are available on site. However, few were happy with the New Barns track and many sought an alternative venue. Enter Robert Lancelot Busby, born in Hampstead, London in 1880, who lived with an uncle, Charles Frail, following the death of his parents in the 1890s. In 1898 his uncle, a well-known figure in the world of horse racing, acquired 132 acres of land adjacent to the River Irwell in Salford - upon which was laid the foundation stone of the Club Stand for Manchester Racecourse in May 1901.When the land at New Barns,Weaste was acquired by the Manchester Ship Canal Co in 1902 racing moved back to Castle Irwell after the race committee purchased that land from the executors of John Fitzgerald’s son. The inaugural two day meeting took place at Easter 1902 when the principal race, the Lancashire Chase, went to Fairland. Robert was appointed Secretary of the newly established racecourse in 1904. The course closed during the First World War, with racing resuming on Wednesday 1st January 1919. During the Second World War racing continued for the first two years, with the course holding the ‘New St Leger’ on Saturday 6th September 1941 when won by Sun Castle trained by Cecil Boyd-Rochfort. In 1961 the old grandstand was demolished and within a year a new one was opened; the future looked bright for Manchester, but how wrong people were. Developers saw the huge potential for the land on which the course was located and made a bid too large to refuse. The final meeting was staged on Saturday 9th November 1963.