Ascot ends era

By Cornelius Lysaght BBC horse racing correspondent

Accolade wins Ascot finale

It felt like abandoning a much-loved family home for a newer, bigger, grander one.

Around virtually ever corner, happy memories prompted nostalgic sadness, but the assured certainty of a brighter future eased the pain.

In such a mood, thousands of us left Ascot racecourse at the end of the three-day Finale meeting, the last fixture there for at least 20 months as the place is transformed.

More than £185m is to be spent on facilities so that, say the architects, the track, the best-known location in global Flat racing, will also be the very best venue of its type in the world.

Officials have visited every kind of stadium imaginable - north, south, east and west - staging every kind of sport you can think of, to seek ideas.

As a result, the Ascot grandstands, so state-of-the-art in the 1960s, but certainly not any more, are to go, some areas lamented rather more than others.

Additionally, parts of the track will be drastically altered.

Dettori's flying dismount is synonymous with Ascot

In all of their places will come 21st century designs and comforts aimed at making the Queen's racecourse the supreme ruler.

Dramas permitting, it will all be finished in time for the Royal meeting in June 2006, but, in the meantime, York hosts the event next year.

As the early autumn sun went down, I wandered through the soon-to-be-flattened enclosures, remembering.

Recalling triumphs and disasters, snowstorms and heat waves, heroes and villains, equines and humans.

From the amphitheatre of the winner's circle, home of Frankie Dettori's leaps, to the tree-lined summer paddock, to the media balcony from which so many hats have been photographed, to that endlessly lucky viewing point, nothing will ever be quite the same again.

Truly, the end of an era.

But, hey, I agreed with a fellow sentimentalist on a similar meander, it's not as though Ascot racecourse is closing forever.

There is already light at the end of a hugely exciting tunnel, the next chapter in a remarkable history that started with Queen Anne in 1711 will soon be written.

And, let's be honest, 20 months is not all that long.