Red Rum ran two steeplechase meetings at Rasen early in his career

SET in rural surroundings, Market Rasen Racecourse is the only racecourse in Lincolnshire and it offers a unique experience.

The friendly family atmosphere and amazing views around the course are perhaps unmatched anywhere in the country.

The Legsby Road site was purchased in 1923 by six local men – Harry Abraham, Wilfred Cartwright, Robert Bygott, William Frearson, Robert Fletcher and James Henry Nettleship, whose family also owns Market Rasen Market Place.

The first meeting took place on Easter Monday, April 21, 1924, when the first winner was Have A Clue. Admission was 2/- (10p).

Racing ceased at Market Rasen with the outbreak of war in 1939.  Easter Monday 1939 had attracted a crowd of 12,000, but the course was requisitioned by the military.

The grass was only allowed to be cut twice a year and the buildings became barracks, initially for troops including the Yorkshire Hussars, but later by Italian prisoners of war.

When the war ended the prisoners helped with the restoration of the course and the last 42 left in 1946.

Racing recommenced in the same year.

Highlights of the second era in the life of the course came with the building of the new Grandstand in the Club and the Tattershall Enclosure in 1961.

The Nursery Enclosure arrived in the following year, the Silver Ring Grandstand in 1969 and the two-storey paddock box and dining room now occupied by the multi-function Brocklesby Suite.

Hospitality boxes, an extension to the paddock dining room, a veterinary unit, saddling boxes, stable lads’ hostel and new stables all arrived in the next two decades. The members’ bar was also refurbished.

Not least important of the post-war improvements was the creation of two reservoirs that hold five million gallons of water between them.

Market Rasen has less than 700mm of rain a year and is one of the driest parts of the country and, because summer meetings are now well-established, watering the course became necessary to protect the landing side of the fences.

The reservoirs and new equipment now enable watering of the whole course to take place on a scale not previously envisaged.

In 2000, meetings take place in every month of the year with the exception of January, and the process of maintaining the course is continuous throughout the year.

Market Rasen Rasecourse, despite its modern multiplicity of use, still remains a racecourse first and foremost.

Red Rum ran in two novice steeplechases there in the early part of his career before gaining fame in the Grand National and Ribsticks, the first Scottish horse to win the National, also won there in 1947.

Silver Buck won at Rasen before winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

In 2003, the course underwent a £500,000 improvement programme.