Darlington has always been a town that sends people places.
More than 200 years ago, the Stockton and Darlington Railway helped change the way the world travelled. Today, Darlington station is still a useful starting point for a day out, including two very different racecourses within easy reach of the town.
Head south and Catterick Bridge is around 15 miles away, beside the River Swale.
Head north-east and Sedgefield offers one of County Durham's best-known jump meetings.
Between them, the two courses stage four racedays this October, including Catterick's richest race and Sedgefield's biggest meeting of the year.
Four October meetings
Sedgefield gets there first.
The County Durham course stages afternoon jump racing on Wednesday 7th October, with six races currently scheduled between 1.50pm and 4.20pm.
Then attention moves to Catterick for the William Hill Catterick Dash Meeting on Saturday 17th October.
A day later, on Sunday 18th October, Sedgefield stages the Durham National.
Catterick then brings its 2026 Flat season to a close on Tuesday 27th October.
So the dates are:
Wednesday 7th October, Sedgefield
Saturday 17th October, Catterick Dash
Sunday 18th October, Durham National
Tuesday 27th October, Catterick Flat Finale
Catterick's Dash meeting currently opens its gates at 11.30am, with the first race at 1.35pm. The Flat Finale on 27th October begins at 1.10pm. Sedgefield's Durham National meeting opens at 12.10pm, with seven races scheduled from 1.38pm.
More than 240 years of racing at Catterick
Racing at Catterick Bridge goes back much further than the modern grandstands suggest.
Horses are believed to have raced in the area from the middle of the seventeenth century, while the first recorded meeting took place on 22nd April 1783.
A permanent course followed in 1813.
That means racegoers have been gathering beside the Swale for more than two centuries.
The present grandstand still incorporates parts of a structure built in 1906, although generations of alterations have transformed the racecourse around it.
Catterick is unusual in another respect too.
Rather than concentrating on either Flat or jump racing, it does both. The course stages around 27 meetings a year, with the Flat season running through the warmer months before jumping takes over during winter.
October therefore marks a turning point.
The Catterick Dash on Saturday 17th October is the headline race of the Flat season.
Run over five furlongs, it is a race built around speed rather than stamina. Catterick describes the Dash as its richest race of the season, and recent editions have attracted some of the better northern sprinters.
Ten days later comes the Flat Finale.
After racing on Tuesday 27th October, there is a short pause before Catterick switches codes and begins its jumps season on Friday 20th November.
A small course that has seen some very big names
Catterick's size has never stopped important horses and jockeys passing through.
Willie Carson rode the first winner of his career there in the early 1960s, long before becoming a five-time champion jockey.
Red Rum also raced successfully at Catterick before becoming forever associated with Aintree and his record three Grand National victories.
That is part of the attraction of smaller northern courses.
A relatively ordinary-looking meeting can occasionally contain a horse or jockey at the beginning of a much bigger story.
The same is true at Sedgefield.
Sedgefield's biggest race of the year
Racing around Sedgefield can be traced back to the eighteenth century, with organised meetings recorded during the nineteenth.
Today it is entirely a jumps course and stages racing from autumn through to spring.
The Durham National is its signature contest.
First run in 1955, it is staged over approximately three and three-quarter miles and has become one of the North East's established staying chases.
This year's race takes place on Sunday 18th October.
And there is a change from last year.
Sedgefield says it has listened to feedback following the 2025 meeting and will return the Durham National to being a dedicated raceday, rather than combining it with the Family Fun Day and Student Raceday.
The emphasis this year is firmly back on the racing.
That seems appropriate for a race with a surprisingly strong history.
Red Alligator won the Durham National in 1967 before going on to win the Grand National at Aintree the following year.
Rubstic became a three-time Durham National winner before winning the Grand National in 1979.
More recently came Hewick.
The Β£800 horse whose rise began at Sedgefield
Hewick's story is one of the more remarkable in modern jump racing.
Bought for just β¬850, he arrived at Sedgefield in October 2021 and won the Durham National under Shane Fenelon.
Trainer Shark Hanlon would later describe the race as the place where Hewick's extraordinary rise began.
From Sedgefield, he went on to win the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown, the Galway Plate and the American Grand National.
Then, on Boxing Day 2023, he won one of Britain's great steeplechases, the King George VI Chase at Kempton.
It is a remarkable list for a horse whose first major British success came around the tight turns of Sedgefield.
That gives the Durham National an added fascination.
The winner on 18th October may simply have had the perfect afternoon at Sedgefield.
Or you may be watching the beginning of something much bigger.
Two courses with very different demands
Catterick and Sedgefield are both left-handed, but that is about where the similarities end.
Catterick is sharp and relatively compact.
Its Flat track is roughly nine furlongs around, with plenty of turning and a separate chute for five-furlong races such as the Dash.
That tends to favour horses able to break cleanly, travel comfortably around tight bends and hold a useful position.
A large horse with a long stride can sometimes find the place more awkward.
Sedgefield is different again.
It rises and falls considerably more than you might expect from looking at the surrounding countryside.
The bends are tight, the back straight climbs and tired horses face another rise close to the finish.
In an ordinary race that matters.
Over nearly four miles in the Durham National, it matters a great deal.
A horse needs stamina, but it also needs to jump economically and remain balanced as the course repeatedly changes direction and gradient.
For anyone going to both meetings on 17th and 18th October, the contrast should be obvious.
Saturday is about speed at Catterick.
Sunday is about endurance at Sedgefield.
Going racing for the first time
Neither course requires much ceremony.
Arrive early enough to have a walk around and find the parade ring before the first race.
That is where the horses appear before the jockeys mount.
You do not need years of form-book knowledge to enjoy watching them.
Some will walk quietly around the ring. Others will be much more animated. Watching how they behave before following them onto the track is one of the easiest ways to start understanding the sport.
There is no requirement to bet.
If you do, decide beforehand what you are comfortable spending and regard it as part of the cost of the afternoon rather than something that needs to happen before every race.
And in October, a decent coat is more useful than worrying too much about what racegoers are supposed to wear.
From Darlington to Catterick
Catterick Racecourse itself recommends Darlington as the most convenient railway station, around 15 miles away.
Regular buses operate between Darlington and Richmond, while Hodgsons service 34 stops at Catterick Bridge, on the roadside outside the main grandstand.
The old racecourse shuttle no longer operates, so anyone relying on public transport should check the latest timetable before travelling.
By car, the journey is particularly simple.
Catterick sits just off the A1, around five miles south of Scotch Corner, with drivers leaving at junction 52.
Richmond is only a few minutes beyond the racecourse and makes an obvious addition to the day.
The castle dominates the town above the River Swale, while the cobbled market place, Georgian Theatre Royal and Green Howards Museum are all within walking distance of one another.
Sedgefield and Hardwick Park
Sedgefield lies in the opposite direction from Darlington and is straightforward to reach by road.
The racecourse sits close to the A177 and within easy reach of the A1(M).
Hardwick Park is almost next door.
Its eighteenth-century landscape includes a lake, woodland and restored architectural features, making it an easy place for a walk before an afternoon at the races.
Sedgefield itself is compact enough to explore without turning the journey into another expedition.
Back in the railway town
The neatest way to finish the story is where it began.
Darlington's connection with modern transport predates either of these October racing fixtures by two centuries.
On 27th September 1825, Locomotion No. 1 hauled passengers and goods on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
It was not the world's first railway, but its combination of a public railway available to passengers and goods with steam locomotive haulage represented a decisive moment in the development of modern rail travel.
Today, that story is told at Hopetown Darlington.
The 7.5-acre attraction opened in July 2024 around the historic North Road railway site and includes the 1833 Goods Shed, North Road Station Museum, Carriage Works and Darlington Locomotive Works. General admission is free, although some attractions and exhibitions carry an additional charge.
It makes a particularly fitting addition to this month's racing.
Darlington helped change the way people travelled.
This October, the railway town remains a very good place to start a journey.
Catterick stages the William Hill Catterick Dash on Saturday 17th October and its Flat Finale on Tuesday 27th October.
Sedgefield races on Wednesday 7th October before staging the Durham National on Sunday 18th October.
Check the individual racecourse websites before travelling for the latest race times, tickets, transport information and ground conditions.
