And they are off!

Tomorrow marks the start of first race meeting of the season at Chester racecourse, the Roodee. Preparations have been going on for months now and the course and it surroundings look in fine fettle. The turf was lush as I walked the home straight this evening.

Stands and the corporate marquees were all ready to receive the hordes of racegoers tomorrow. Catering ranges from fine dining in the County stand to burger vans for those out on the course.

The racecourse is within the city and lies between a curve in the river and the city walls. Racing has been held on the Roodee since 1539 and replaced an annual football match held there each year but which was banned by the city in 1533 due to it's violent nature.

The course is set out in an oval and is just a mile long with a very short finishing straight and races are run in an anti clockwise direction, unlike the jogger in my photo who is heading the wrong way round.

The area taken up by the course was originally the harbour until the river silted up and changed course. There was a small island on the river on which stood a sandstone cross known as a rood. Roodee is a corruption of Rood Eye which means Island of the Cross.

The photograph was taken from the city walls, looking down on the corporate marquees in the finishing straight.