A retrospective planning application has been submitted for a professional race horse training facility.<\/p>\n
Cynthia Woods Racing, operating at Green Hedges Farm in Crowborough, has applied for permission from Rother District Council for gallops used to train professional race horses.<\/p>\n
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A gallop is a dedicated track or surface designed for horses to exercise at high speeds, often used for training and conditioning.<\/p>\n
The retrospective application aims to secure the continued operation of Mrs Woods’s professional race horse training business, which relocated to Green Hedges Farm in late 2016.<\/p>\n
Initially, Mrs Woods trained eight horses for point-to-point racing, a popular form of amateur horse racing, at the farm.<\/p>\n
The location was ideal for the fitness training and welfare of the horses, with access to hills on quiet roads, bridleways, and Eridge Park for fast work training.<\/p>\n
However, in 2018, the use of Eridge Park was withdrawn due to a new deer contract with Waitrose, forcing Mrs Woods to make a 50-mile round trip to Bo Peep on the Sussex Downs, three to four times a week, for galloping.<\/p>\n
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Due to a shrinking pool of point-to-point racing enthusiasts, the death of one of Ms Woods’s biggest customers in 2019, and the effects of the pandemic, Mrs Woods turned to professional racing to sustain her business.<\/p>\n
In September 2020, she was granted a professional licence, allowing her to race horses on licensed race courses.<\/p>\n
The British Horseracing Authority, as part of the licensing conditions, required gallops of approximately six furlongs within hacking distance of the stables.<\/p>\n
Mrs Woods managed to secure temporary approval for using a neighbouring farm’s larger fields for professional training.<\/p>\n
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However, this arrangement ended in September 2022, leaving Mrs Woods in need of a training facility or facing the closure of her business.<\/p>\n
With the immediate availability of a local tradesman, Mrs Woods began constructing gallops on her own land in July 2021.<\/p>\n
Fontwell Park racecourse, one of the locations that Cynthia Woods horses race (Image: Nick MacNeill) The construction was undertaken on the assumption that the gallops would be covered under the previously granted planning permission for equestrian use.<\/p>\n
The gallops were designed to ensure the exercising of horses in a professional manner, while also incorporating drainage to make the land more usable.<\/p>\n
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This was considered necessary due to the clay soil, which would have become unusable, risking the withdrawal of Mrs Woods’s professional licence and the end of her business.<\/p>\n
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The retrospective planning application seeks to regularise the existing gallops, which Mrs Woods argues are essential for the training operation at Green Hedges Farm.<\/p>\n
The application states the development has been designed with consideration for its setting, access, and environmental impact, ensuring it aligns with planning policies and local rural enterprise needs.<\/p>\n
The gallops are positioned within the farm boundary and are designed to support the training and exercise of horses in a safe and controlled environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A retrospective planning application has been submitted for a professional race horse training facility. Cynthia Woods Racing, operating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[18655,18653,18659,18651,18660,18657,18654,18656,18652,3004,18658,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-30310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-cynthia-woods","tag-cynthia-woods-racing","tag-eridge-park","tag-green-hedges","tag-mrs-woods","tag-professional-licence","tag-professional-race-horses","tag-race-horse","tag-race-horses","tag-racing","tag-rother-district-council","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}