End of an era as Osgood waves goodbye

The clerk of the course spent 39 years at Newbury Racecourse

RICHARD Osgood, Newbury’s long-standing clerk of the course, ended a 39-year association with the course on Saturday.

Osgood became assistant to his father Frank, who was part of the management team from 1947 until he retired in 1990, estates manager and then clerk of the course.

He has been part of the team at Newbury since 1979, while the Osgood family has been involved with Newbury for 99 years, with his great uncle John Osgood becoming the manager in 1919.

A presentation was made to Richard before racing by Newbury Racecourse chairman Dominic Burke, while the jockeys formed a guard of honour.

Osgood said: “It is both a great and sad day for me.

“I have said to everybody that the frost covers have to be my proudest achievement, bearing in mind we covered the whole course and that was the first time it has been done in Britain.

“It involved 24 acres of covers and we saved the meeting. Now it is commonplace.

“I didn’t become a clerk of the course until 2001. During that time, we have gone through much better training than ever before and after each race meeting now, you see a decent course with grass.

“When I first started, you finished a meeting with the course like a ploughed field and you would literally get it back just in time for the next meeting.

“Various things help now, including a gang of treaders who tread everything back and we have the course back in shape in two days now, rather than three weeks. We know about what we are doing now more than ever before.”

Osgood continued: “I can remember back to the day after the Bradford fire in 1985.

I had the fireman on the doorstep on the Sunday morning asking me about what we would do with our stands – they were lovely traditional stands – but made of wood and had to come down.

“Plans were made almost straight away about how we could develop the stands.

“It has been a major upheaval. The capital we have raised from selling land for housing development has been pushed back into the racecourse.”

Osgood said: “My sister died two years ago and that made me think. I am not getting any younger and when you are working long hours nearly every day, I got to the stage where I thought I should slow down.

“I have not missed a meeting in 39 years. It will take time to wean myself off it, but life goes on.

“I have a small grandchild who will need looking after when my daughter wants to do other things and I am also going to be freer to play more golf.”

Paying tribute, champion trainer Nicky Henderson, who is based at Seven Barrows, Lambourn, said: “Richard has been a spectacular man and brilliant for Newbury.

“He has seen the racecourse through a lot of development and has always been very meticulous with his going reports – we all trusted him implicitly.

“It has been great fun and Richard has always been such a lovely person to be able to talk to. He always rings us the day before every meeting and is an example to everybody.”

Newbury’s new clerk of the course is Keith Ottesen, who has been shadowing Osgood since August.