Jim Beavis talks about the History of Fontwell exhibition marking 100 years of racing at the West Sussex track
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00:00 I'm joined by Jim Beavis, racing author and historian. Jim, pleased to be here today for the big Fontwell centenary
00:08 and you've been quite instrumental in putting together this wonderful exhibition on the 100 years of Fontwell.
00:13 What sort of a project has that been for you?
00:15 Well it's been a unique one for me, not having tried to do anything like this in the past.
00:20 Lots of other people have been involved with it as well, but because I wrote the history of Fontwell races book about 15 years ago
00:28 I've got various resources and a few facts and figures at my fingertips which would help put something together
00:35 that was wanted today for the centenary exhibition.
00:38 I think I'm right in saying that when you wrote the book you started out by sort of wondering whether there would be enough of a story to Fontwell's 100 years
00:46 and the more you got into it the more you found actually there's all sorts of fascinating stories and little anecdotes from down the years.
00:52 Well that's right, I was sceptical because it had only been going on for 80 something odd years, there would be much to say
01:00 and it was a small country horse that lots of people hadn't heard of.
01:03 But when I dug into it and learnt about the way it was created, which was by the trainer Alfred Day, whose land it was on
01:14 and how he was persuaded by his nephew when he was losing some of his owners to old age that they could squeeze in a racehorse here
01:23 and they worked out it could be done.
01:25 And one thing led to another really, they had some obstacles in the way, they had to fight to get the fixtures, but they did.
01:33 And then it became quite a smart place between the wars, well between 1924 and the Second War.
01:40 It's grown steadily since then and got some good races and had some good horses appearing here.
01:45 And it's nice to see it's still going strong today, it's a different course now but it's still here,
01:50 it's still something like 20 meetings, maybe a bit more than that per year.
01:55 And that's pleasing in itself isn't it, the smaller tracks, some of them doing okay.
02:00 And I think there's still quite a fondness for Fontwell because it means a lot to the local people
02:09 and it's got character more so than quite a few other bigger and supposedly better courses.
02:15 And the exhibition that we've been looking at today, how long did that take you and your fellow helpers to put together?
02:23 Oh well that's a tough one, certainly months, but we've had a lot of resources to sift through
02:34 and getting your head around them has been quite a big job.
02:38 And as we've got nearer to the deadline we found other material coming in as well,
02:43 which was too good to leave out and indeed there's some things that have been put in place today which I hadn't seen before.
02:50 So it was just too good to miss.
02:52 So you've discovered new things even now.
02:54 Yeah, we've discovered new things and people have been enjoying it.
02:57 And you've had good feedback today, you say, to a steady stream of people coming in?
03:01 Yeah, yeah, and I've been very pleased at the number of people coming in here
03:06 and wish it could be on longer but it's just for today I'm afraid.
03:10 Yeah, and we should mention your partner in crime, Will LaFave, he's been sort of busily helping you
03:16 and adding his own connections into the exhibition too?
03:20 Oh yes, he's done tremendously, he's done more than me really in stoking up interest for the whole event
03:25 and providing exhibits and he's not so much gone the extra mile,
03:30 the extra mile and a half I think.
03:33 The extra furlough.
03:34 Good, well congratulations on the exhibition and thanks for showing us around.
03:38 Alright, thanks Dave.