History

Guy Harwood purchased Coombelands in 1965, at which time it was an arable and dairy farm. Over the next twenty years, Coombelands Racing Stables was developed into one of the finest modern private training establishments in the world. Coombelands provides over 150 acres of maintained gallop land surrounding the stables all of which can be irrigated if necessary. Four all weather gallops, five turf gallops including the American shaped bend, numerous winter cantering gallops, an indoor canterway and outdoor school, together with the swimming pool and two horse walkers, providing outstanding private racehorse training facilities.

Coombelands four all weather gallops range in distance from six to eight furlongs. The varying contours of the land at Coombelands provide a range of challenges for the horses; from the six furlong, ‘Six’ gallop’s steep incline for increasing stamina to the mile long ‘Valley’ gallop which rises 150ft in five furlongs. In addition there are two less demanding Gallops; a ‘round track’ of 7f and a straight but undulating ‘across the top’ 6f gallop. The tracks are wide enough to allow three horses to work abreast. Each gallop has a woodchip surface, which is rolled regularly during the day and is re-laid every three years. This provides an even and forgiving base for the horses to work on.

We have five turf gallops and many winter cantering areas, all of which can be irrigated by a pop up purpose built system. This enables us to produce different types of turf conditions on which the horses can train during the flat race season. There is also a banked turf American bend that is used to train horses that may be racing abroad as well as educating the youngsters to turn at speed for the European tracks.

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