Race Day COUNTDOWN
4:12:12 autumn fertiliser. The sward was maintained
throughout the winter months using a John Deere 1600T wide area mower set at 75mm and, in February, the track was decompacted again. At the beginning of May Adrian applied a 25:4:10 Indigrow slow release fertiliser and a combination of wetting agent and selective weed killers.
Cutting the course usually takes about 5 hours and that doesn’t include the paddocks and ornamental areas. Adrian has seven full time staff and employs a further 17 track assistants on race days. The week leading up to a meeting is all about getting the course ready and keeping an eye on the going (condition of the track).
The health and safety of the horses and jockeys is of paramount importance during racing. The degree of risk of injury to the horse and rider are influenced by the surface rating or, in other words, the surface hardness. In the United Kingdom going is categorised as, heavy, soft, good-to-soft, good, good-to firm, firm, and hard, where heavy is a slow wet surface, and
hard is a fast dry surface.
The ideal going varies depending on the type of racing. The British Horse Racing Authority (BHA) stipulate that flat courses should aim to provide ‘good to firm ground’.
It is the duty of the Clerk of Course to declare the going of the course a week before racing commences and on each day of the race. The going is measured by inserting a going stick into the ground to measure penetration and shear. Today the official going is measured using an electronic Turftrax going stick. The going stick determines a mean value of three measurements of soil penetrative resistance, and soil translational shear strength, and converts the mean to a value of going based on a 15 point index that has been calibrated to values of going expressed by senior race inspectors of the Jockey Club:
13+ Hard 12 Firm
10 Good to Firm 8 Good
6 Good to Soft 4 Soft
2 Heavy
The lead-up to the first race day of the season is an exceptionally busy time. There is the course furniture and signage to be set out, over 1000 linear metres of new track rail to be installed and all the crossing points to be refurbished with new polytrack materials.
I arrived at the course the day before the first race day. As I expected Adrian was busily overseeing the final preparations. His staff were putting up rails and horse protection fences, releasing Adrian to stripe up the course with the John Deere triple mower and setting up the sprinkler system. We finally got away from the course at 10.45pm, getting home for a quick bite to eat before retiring to bed, knowing we would be up at 5.00am in time to meet William Derby at the course by 6.00am.
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