A Brief History of Bath Racecourse

Britain is home to some of the most picturesque locations of horse racing across the world, and there’s no finer portrayal of this than in the south of England. It has long been home to one of the country’s best racing venues, Bath Racecourse. Here’s a brief history of it.

Of course, Bath isn’t the only famed racecourse in Britain, as the rest of the nation plays host to some of the most iconic events on the sporting calendar from the Cheltenham Festival to the Newmarket Races. However, arguably the most well-known location not just in Britain but across the world has to be Aintree racecourse, the long-time location of the Grand National. Intriguingly, there don’t appear to be any Bath-born runners according to the Grand National 2021 odds from Paddy Power, but there is some saving grace in the fact a couple of the runners are at least from the southern portion of England. For instance, Bristol de Mai, currently tipped by Paddy Power at 20/1 to take the victory was trained in Naunton, Gloucestershire and Mister Malarkey, trained by Colin Tizzard in Milborne Port in Dorset has odds of 25/1.

As much as the Grand National is arguably the biggest horse racing event in Britain alongside perhaps the Cheltenham Festival, Bath Racecourse has its own intriguing set of races every year and the racecourse itself has an interesting history. Rather interestingly, standing at 238 metres above sea level, Bath is Britain’s highest flat racecourse. As with a lot of the other racecourses around Britain, of which Bath is a prime example, racing was first recorded during the Reconstruction era following Charles II’s ascension to the throne. Racing was first recorded in Bath in 1716, although is first properly recorded from 25th September 1728 where Smiling Ball won the Bath Plate, then worth 50 guineas. Racing continued at the original location for the racecourse until 1796 before it transferred to the current location in Lansdown in 1811.

1811 is considered a landmark year as being the first true year of racing action at Bath, held under the stewardship of a local family, the Blathwayts, who are credited with bringing horse racing to Bath. It is perhaps the same set of Blathwayts that occupied Dyrham Park, although not much is known about that first meeting. In those early years of the course’s development, the Somerset Stakes were first held as a major event, and they are one of those meetings that have stood the test of time and are still held to this day. Recent years have also seen a significant redevelopment of the racecourse under the finding of the owners, the Arena Racing Company which has caused the opening of a new grandstand, the Langridge Grandstand in July 2016, along with all sorts of new facilities including a canopied roof garden that keeps in with modern trends of design and can provide a nice background for any conferences or events.

As with a lot of other racecourses in Britain, Bath certainly has quite an interesting history and it’s testament to the prominence of racing over several hundred years that such facilities are still going. The ensuing years, if the previous projects are anything to go by, are likely to see more refurbishment and development and it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the course’s landscape pans out in the future.