Lincoln

Lincoln's old racecourse sat high on the West Common, just west of the city, a long, windswept expanse of grassland where racing took place for more than two centuries. It was a flat, left‑handed track of about a mile and a half, with a famously long straight that ran almost arrow‑true across the common. The setting was distinctive because the course wasn’t enclosed in the modern sense; it lay open on common land, with cattle grazing and footpaths crossing the infield, and the grandstand standing alone like a landmark on the edge of the heath.

The course's best‑known race was the Lincoln Handicap, which became the traditional curtain‑raiser to the British Flat season. When the race moved to Doncaster in 1965, Lincoln’s days were effectively numbered. The course struggled with declining facilities, limited investment, and the practical difficulties of running a major venue on common land. Racing finally ceased in 1964, though the grandstand survived and still stands today as a listed building, a reminder of the old straight mile and the crowds that once gathered there.

The site remains open common land, and if you walk it now you can still trace the line of the old course in the shape of the ground and the position of the surviving stand. It has that slightly haunting quality you get with disused racecourses: the sense that the shape of the sport is still imprinted on the landscape even though the horses have long gone.

Winners at Lincoln (1)