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By Cornelius Lysaght BBC Sport racing correspondent

Kempton Park is swathed in steeplechasing history, principally because of the King George VI Chase.

The Boxing Day race is a true mid-season championship, staged on an examining right-handed course, which also attracts good quality National Hunt and flat racing all year round.

Crowning glories of great race

Last week officials made steps towards doing away with tradition and replacing it with a left-handed, state-of-the-art artificial track, which they claim would be the envy of Europe.

They insist no final decision will be made until a feasibility study in spring.

Moving the King George to Sandown would be a disaster for racing

But there is little doubt once financial and planning hurdles are cleared, it is their intention to scrap the tradition of turf racing sooner rather than later.

The recently refurbished grandstand would be bulldozed, and major races would be shunted off to other courses within the same Racecourse Holdings Trust (RHT) group.

In the King George's case, Sandown would be its new home.

The whole thing is enough to make you weep.

It verges on the scandalous, as large sums of money spent recently on tarting the place up will be flushed down the drain.

If a council was involved the Ombudsman would be threatening surcharges.

For the management to moan that it is not possible to make any profit out of jump racing - which is likely to be their argument - only adds to the ludicrousness.

Adrian Maguire leads Florida Pearl to victory in the King George VI Chase at Kempton
Adrian Maguire and Florida Pearl won the King George in 2001

If that is the case why did cash forecasts not take that into account before the fairly-unloved refurbishment commenced?

Moving the King George to Sandown would be a disaster for racing.

Kempton is a fast and furious, flat course that provides a quite different challenge to Cheltenham, where there is more emphasis on stamina.

Sandown is too much like Cheltenham, so the race would simply become a warm-up for the Gold Cup.

Former champion jockey Peter Scudamore said if RHT do not care enough to offer a more suitable venue it should surrender the right to stage the race.

He has rightly suggested Ascot, who would welcome the move as they hold a lingering suspicion that interest is waning in steeplechasing.

If Kempton was to follow Nottingham and Windsor in ending National Hunt racing then it is important Ascot does not follow suit.

Bleak outlook

The British Horseracing Board (BHB) has a duty to address worries about the future of jump racing.

For a start it should prevent Kempton making changes, denying it any new fixtures if necessary.

If we do need a world-class "dirt" course they should be able to find a better plan than the destruction of one of our leading turf tracks.

If the BHB does not act a bleak outlook will only look bleaker.

And jump racing, which has a long and honourable tradition in Britain, could wither and die.

King George could be moved