The new track was opened on July 17th 1880 with races including a one handicap, run in seven heats, and a one mile professional handicap race won by John Keen off scratch from a class field which included JT Williams, A Rawson, B Keen and G Lockley. The racing continued on the following Monday.
Derby Bicycle Club moved their meetings from the Aboretum to the new track in 1880. The club's first meeting at the racecourse track was on August 7th 1880, but after the first race, the one mile open handicap had been run, the meeting was abandoned due to torrential rain. The meeting was completed the following Wednesday. The club championship five miles race was held on 4th December 1880. After one year of operating, the Recreation Company reported a profit and paid a 10% dividend.
The Derby BC Athletic Festival was held on 14th July 1881, but the attendance was poor because of the competing Royal Agricultural Show. The sport was reported in the Derby Mercury as "very tame". John Keen triumphed again in the three miles professional race held at the weekend meeting on July 27th and 29th 1881, Keen won the £10 first prize and beat W Cann, Higham, Lockley, Rawson and the Dutchman Albert Derkinderen. The amateur one mile handicap race was won by WH Price of Burton, who won a Rawson bicycle, valued at £17.
After this encouraging start, bicycle racing on the racecourse ground seems to have stopped at the close of 1881, after only two years.
