2nd May 2005
Horse racing returns to L’Ancresse race course
Horse racing now takes place on L’Ancresse common most May Day bank holidays. That wasn’t always the case, though. It fell out of favour for 13 years between 1992 and 2005 after organisers had trouble finding runners to participate.
Guernsey Race Club sponsored a day of racing at the Les Landes course in Jersey in 2004 and, following a positive response, decided to investigate bringing the sport back to Guernsey. Work began almost right away on returning the course to the required standard. Labourers added top soil and re-seeded worn out patches, while the Guernsey Race Club applied to the Channel Islands Racing and Hunt Club for permission to host a fixture.
Successful race days
Since 2010, L’Ancresse Racecourse has been home to the Ravenscroft Channel Islands Handicap £5000. This is the largest horse-racing prize in the Channel Islands. The course itself is a one mile and one furlong-long circuit, run in a clockwise direction.
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Other events that occured in May
Priaulx Library opens for the first time
- The library was a gift to the island from Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx
- Read more…
John Doyle was appointed Lieutenant-Governor
- Born in Ireland, Doyle instituted enormous civil and military works across Guernsey.
- Read more…
Alderney was liberated at the end of the second world war
- All of Alderney's residents had been sent away during the war. It was an entirely military island.
- Read more…
Wartime diplomat Wilfred Gallienne born in Guernsey
- Gallienne was on a Nazi hit-list of people to be detained after a successful invasion of Britain.
- Read more…
