KEMPTON PARK RACECOURSE

That this House believes that there is an urgent need to hold a full inquiry into the rightful ownership of Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Jockey Club which currently owns and operates a large number of the UK's functioning racecourses, including premier tracks at Aintree, home of the Grand National, Cheltenham, which presents the National Hunt Festival, Epsom the Derby, Newmarket, Guineas and Oaks, Sandown, the Eclipse Stakes, together with the iconic courses Kempton Park, the venue for the King George VI Chase and other important thoroughbred races; notes that some of those courses were sold for a sum less than valued against other bidders to safeguard racing and protect them from closure, others from public funds and other funds raised via the racing industry's Government-authorised annual levy payments scheme; further notes that today these assets remain owned, managed and controlled by the Jockey Club, a private, non-charitable organisation which has few members who are largely unrepresentative of those who operate, are employed, support or invest in horseracing in the UK which currently is responsible for the employment of around 100,000 people, has millions of followers and produces billions of pounds of revenue every year from its activities; and calls on the Government to urgently examine JCR's acquisition and recent decision to sell Kempton Park to developers and to establish whether the public purse has any claim to receive back a proportion of any capital revenue raised.