Stanley Racecourse

Stanley Racecourse lies located on the west side of Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands, between Victory Green and the golf course.

Fairy Cove and is located in Falkland Islands. Stanley Racecourse has a length of 1.2 miles, or 10 furlongs.

The racecourse was laid out over a hundred years ago on land belonging to the Falkland Islands Company, and for most of its history the course was owned in part by the Crown and in part by the Company. In 2007 the Company land was acquired by the Falkland Islands Government.

This is a popular facility for the islands. A two-day horse racing meeting is held every year in the midst of Summer; the Christmas races, held on the 26th and 27th of December, as they have been for over a century.

Nearby

Stanley Golf Course is laid out to the west of Stanley. It is a complete 18-hole course with a club house.

The racecourse is next to the town, beside Victory Green where the Battle of the Falklands Memorial stands. Off-shore lies the wreck of the Jhelum.

Historical incidents

The 1966 'invasion'

On 28 September 1966, an Argentine passenger aeroplane on an internal flight, an Aerolineas Argentina DC-4 with thirty-five passengers, was hijacked by a group of nineteen of the passengers, who forced the pilot to fly them to the Falkland Islands. The hijackers (a group of metalworkers and a journalist brought along to record their actions) declared that they intended to seize the islands for Argentina. As this was before the islands had an airport, the aeroplane set down on the racecourse. After three days shivering beneath the wings, without food and surrounded by the local militia and Royal Marines, the hijackers surrendered.

The 1982 Falklands War

During the Falklands War, the Argentine forces used the racecourse as a helicopter base. During the liberation of Stanley as the war ended, the RAF's 656 Squadron, flying Westland Gazelle helicopters landed and seized the Argentine machines.

The Argentines were also found to have used the stables to store artillery shells.

Acquisition

In 2007, the Falkland Islands Government purchased Stanley Racecourse from the Falkland Islands Company in order to preserve it as a community recreational facility. The acquisition was part of a land exchange agreement whereby some twenty-four acres of land around the capital were conveyed to the Falkland Islands Company and promises given for future contracts in exchange for the Company's part of the Racecourse and adjacent paddock: over twenty-one acres in all. The whole course is leased to the Stanley Sports Association.

References

• Watts, Patrick: 'The Christmas Sports : a history of the Stanley Sports Association 1908-2012' (Stanley Services Ltd., 2012) ISBN 978-095667562-0
• Smith, John: 'An Historical Scrapbook of Stanley' ISBN 978-009265160-2