Newmarket, then and now
Mall at Newmarket will carry the history of Newmarket for generations to come.
Alberton has come to know the Mall at Newmarket well, catering for all one’s shopping and restaurant needs.
It wasn’t always this way; the mall is built upon what used to be the Newmarket Racecourse, a theme that the mall has integrated into its design and art in and around the mall.
The Newmarket Racecourse was established in 1938, combining two race clubs, Rand Race and Newmarket Race Club, with Jack Patience as their first secretary.
The first racehorse in South African horse racing history to win the summer handicap three times, from 1956 to 1958, was Java, a name associated with the small Alberton suburb Java Park, next to Newmarket.
The owner, Leonard Hansen Oates, who was born in Australia, chose the name to live on in history to celebrate the area it came from.
The then new main pavilion at Newmarket Racecourse, opened on September 13, 1961, was popular, for horse racing, yes, but also cycling, athletics, and stadium golf.
As part of its official 50th anniversary, Newmarket Racecourse staged the 100 000 Newmarket Golden Jubilee Handicap on September 29, 1988.
The introduction of night racing in the second half of the 1990s caused huge excitement, with a turnout of more than 7 000 on the opening night of September 29, 1996. A record R8-million was wagered on the nine-race programme.
On May 24, 2001, it was officially announced that 63 years after it all started in 1938, the racecourse was no more.
The Alberton RECORD’s description in an article (as part of 100 years of sport in Alberton, back in 2004) perfectly described what a big part the disestablished Newmarket Racecourse had in the hearts of the people of Alberton.
That was then, but now Mall at Newmarket will carry the history of Newmarket for generations to come.
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