When the news broke that Kempton Park racecourse could be closed to make way for a major housing development, social media went into overdrive.

The majority of views were a stalwart defence of Kempton while some shed few tears for a track referred to as “the gravel pits”. And then there was the comment on Twitter which said: “@SunburyAntiques Just heard the plans to bulldoze #Kempton – please tell me your excellent market will relocate, not disappear?”

There were over 150 racecourses in Britain in the mid-19th Century, but that figure was slowly eroded and, by the early 1960s, the likes of Hurst Park (then home of the Triumph Hurdle) and Manchester (November Handicap) were sold for redevelopment while Bogside (Scottish Grand National) and Lanark (Silver Bell), which closed in 1977, were simply left to rot.

The bulldozers almost claimed Cheltenham until Nicky Henderson’s father, Johnny, brought together a group of investors to buy the racecourse for £240,000 in 1963 and Racecourse Holdings Trust was set up the following year.

Renamed as Jockey Club Racecourses in 2005, it has a portfolio of 15 courses including Aintree, Epsom and Sandown Park and has been regarded as one of the sport’s stabilising influences during a sometimes turbulent period as racing has sought to build a firmer financial base for itself.

And it is finance, how it can be best generated and where it should be focussed, which the Jockey Club say is at the heart of their proposal.

It was their desire to ensure a slice of the lucrative media rights market with bookmakers that persuaded the Club to replace the Flat turf course at Kempton with an all-weather surface. This has more than paid its way and proven very popular with trainers. However, unlike Lingfield Park, which still has the capacity to run its most famous Flat races on turf, races like the Jubilee and Roseberry Stakes have withered on Kempton’s artificial vine. And the casual crowds who would happily attend Kempton’s summer night meetings on turf have not been so seduced by its new incarnation.

So now the Club is planning an all-weather track at Newmarket, a strategy that had been previously rejected, which means giving up on a track which has a potential audience of 8.5million in favour one which can draw on a little over 20,000. One can only assume that the marketing plan to sell this idea is better than the one to attract attendances at Kempton.

On that score, even if Kempton is retained, there could be merit in amalgamating their Christmas meeting with that held at Ascot earlier in the month, although it would only make sense if switched to Ascot to deliver the necessary crowd figures. Not that attendances figure much in the Jockey Club’s plans.

Simon Bazalgette, the chief executive of the Jockey Club, came up with the strange notion of creating a “new heritage” but a Newmarket all-weather track would take racing full circle. When the town first hosted racing 350 years ago it was a sport for the landed gentry to watch their horses, with the hoi polloi just an afterthought, which is much how an all-weather meeting there in January will look like.

Not many Newmarket trainers will be against such a development in their backyard but they took up placards a few years ago when Lord Derby proposed a building a housing project at nearby Hatchfield Farm. The Jockey Club were also against, but then Kempton is not in their backyard. At least they know how the members of Spelthorne Council, in whose borough Kempton is sited, feel because they have already made their displeasure at this proposal known.

That was reflected by a large cross-section of racing professionals and public alike and while the Jockey Club may be a private-members club it was entrusted with these racecourses because of its “objective of securing the future of racecourses for horse racing”. Many believed that these courses were held in trust to prevent just this eventuality so there surely needs to a more detailed and compelling case offered.

Based on what has been said, the Club are asking the rest of the sport to take a punt with a very sketchy outline of what is on offer.

They propose a ten-year plan to invest at least half a billion pounds into racing. That would equate to roughly the same as the £415million they spent on prize-money contributions and infrastructure programmes in the past decade. It is unclear whether any of that money was spent on smoke and mirrors for this project.

Given that the projected base figure for the profit of a sale of Kempton is £100million their stated aim “to fund its ambitions through its diverse commercial operation” suggests that they have a strong grasp of how that rest of those funds would be raised. Perhaps the increased contribution from the reformed Levy system, which is set to be implemented in April, has been factored into those calculations?

Oliver Sherwood, the Grand National-winning trainer, articulated the views of many when he spoke of the need for a more detailed explanation. "Show us the sums and what they want to do and we might understand it easier," he said.

Or, perhaps, drop the investment to £400million and keep Kempton?

The Jockey Club may wish to ponder that before putting one of the racing family’s heirlooms on the market stall.