The starter’s flag will fall for the last time on racing at Dunthrop, near Chipping Norton, this Sunday when the course stages its final meeting before closing.

Racing has taken place at the Oxfordshire venue since 1983.

But financial considerations and a change to European farming regulations, with landowner Robin Coates wanting to concentrate on arable use, have led to Sunday’s Heythrop Hunt fixture being the course’s swansong.

Christopher Marriott, secretary of the Heythrop Hunt, explained: “There are lots of reasons. We can’t water there, so we are stuck with the early meeting and with the increasing costs we can’t make any money.

“Part of the reason we have the meeting is to give a nice day out for the farmers, and if it is cold and miserable they don’t like to come.

“And with the change in EU regulations the farmer wanted the opportunity to plough it up if he could do. I can understand his point of view.”

Dunthrop has proved popular with spectators, but Marriott said: “It has never hit the button quite with owners and riders. It has always had a slightly iffy reputation.

“Jon Trice-Rolph has done a hell of a job, but the physical character of the land means it is either very sticky or almost good to firm.”

Over the last three decades Dunthrop has been the scene of some terrific racing.

In it’s own small way, it played a part in the campaign to save the Grand National back in the 1980s.

“We have had a lot fun,” said Marriott. “In the first or second year when the Grand National was under a lot of threat we ran an extra meeting there to raise funds to save the National.

“John Oaksey was commentating, and it was lovely to see him there.”

More recently anyone who was fortunate enough to have been at the track in December 2008 won’t forget the sight of Kingscliff spreadeagling his rivals.

Arguably the best horse to have run at Dunthrop, the 11-year-old came home a distance clear of Irilut and Sam Waley-Cohen.

The course has seen many other notable riders in action.

Marriott recalls the time Marcus Armytage, who famously won the Grand National on Mr Frisk, was disqualified for failing to weigh in after winning the Old Etonians’ race for the late Colonel Arthur Clarke-Brown.

“If the Colonel gave him a rocket like he did me once it would have been worth listening to,” he added.

The track has also been a haven for celebrity-spotters, with no less than Prime Minister David Cameron and Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson among last year’s crowd.

And although Dunthrop may be disappearing of the point-to-point map, the Heythrop Hunt are to continue staging meetings with a new course in the pipeline at Aldsworth, near Cirencester.

l Preview of Sunday’s meeting in tomorrow’s Oxford Mail