NEWBURY: GREAT RACECOURSE; POOR STORY.

​The downside of buying off the internet is that when it comes to books you can’t pick them up, turn the pages and browse. At least I can’t do this buying from Ways of Newmarket. Not that I am complaining, just commentating. 
I enjoy ‘biographies’ of racecourses. Chris Pitt’s book on Worcester was excellent, as was his book on Birmingham racecourse. I have bought from Ways, and enjoyed, books on Salisbury racecourse, Market Rasen, Chepstow and a book on royal patronage of Newmarket. I also have in my collection histories of Ascot, Epsom, York, Colwick Park, or Nottingham to you or me, and Brighton. I assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that ‘The Story of Newbury Racecourse’ by Frank Osgood, would be in the same vein.
The title, I have to admit, is not misleading. Frank Osgood’s book is indeed a history of Newbury racecourse, from its inception in 1906 to the year of the book’s publication in 1993. What this book is not though is a true racing book. It is a history as if written by an accountant. Not one actual race is described, not even, though there is a photograph of the great horse, Arkle’s Hennessey Chases. There are, though, a lot of photographs of royal personages.
If you want to be acquainted with every single chairman of the racecourse company you will not be disappointed. If you want to know how much the renovation and refurbishment of the Royal Box in 1957 cost, you will again be rewarded. £3,149- 18-shillings, to be exact. Or the price of Club Subscriptions in 1950 – £12-12-6pence for Original Members, Gentlemen and Ladies. £25 Gentleman and Lady. £14 for Gentleman and Lady single. And so on. Luncheons for the same period were 7/6 and teas 3/- for Members Tattersalls.
The book is a veritable feast of such information. In 1949 wages for labour staff was increased by a penny per hour to 2-shillings and 3 pence. In 1963 a new borehole pumping plant was installed at a cost of £4,980. Davis Watson and Elliot were hired at a cost of £4,029-18-0 to tarmac the roads in the Members Car Park. On December 4th, 1964, Major Peter Beckwith-Smith resigned as assistant Clerk of the Course and Captain C.B. Toller was appointed in his place at a retaining fee of £250 per annum.
It is astonishing, though from the perspective of today unsurprising, the number of retired military men who were either accepted on to the board or employed as either clerks of the course or manager. It really was, I suspect, a case of not what you knew but whom you knew.
Frank Osgood, incidentally, became manager and joint secretary on the retirement of his uncle John in April 1956. Before that he was assistant manager. John Osgood had been Newbury’s first General Manager, taking the job in 1919. In all the Osgood family were associated with Newbury for 71-years. There should be a race named in their honour. Frank Osgood retired in March 1990 after 43-years of service to Newbury and its many directors and chairmen.
I believe Newbury racecourse is an under-rated gem of British racing. Yes, it has the Lockinge, some group 2-year-old races on the flat, as well as top chases and hurdle races but as the fairest of racecourses it deserves many more races of greater magnitude. As much as I despair of ‘Champions Day’, Newbury would have been a better choice of venue. To my mind, with its long straight, it is far better racecourse than Ascot, a racecourse already blessed with the Royal meetings and many big days. Newbury deserves a signature meeting both on the flat and over jumps. This is why I found Frank Osgood’s book, sadly, a stonking great disappointment. 
Racecourses are all about the core activity that goes on between the white rails, what goes on behind office doors and the boardroom is of far less interest than the horses, jockeys, trainers and owners. The author, who doubtless wrote the book he set out to write, might have dotted the I’s and crossed the t’s of every screw, bolt and nail used in the construction of the first and second grandstand.