Equestrian
All weather racing – facts and figures
Lingfield was the first all weather course in the UK, and its original Fibresand track was replaced with Polytrack in 2001
Southwell came next, and is the only remaining UK track surfaced with Fibresand, although owners Arena Leisure are said to be considering US-based former trainer Michael Dickinson’s Tapeta Footings surface, recently installed at the Meydan racecourse in Dubai.
In 1993, Wolverhampton installed its all-weather course, bringing floodlit racing to the UK for the first time.
In 2005, the first group race on the all-weather took place at Lingfield. The Surrey course now hosts the £100,000 Winter Derby and its Winter Derby Trial is a listed race.
2006 saw Kempton Park’s Polytrack course host its first meeting.
In 2007, Musselburgh drew up plans for an all-weather track, improvements to the jumps course and new stable block, but was refused planning permission for the all-weather.
Great Leighs in Essex was granted planning permission in 2002, but it was six years before the track finally raced. In 2009, the Jockey Club refused to renew Great Leighs’ licence and the administrators were called in. At the end of 2011, the course was purchased from West Register by MC Racetracks, who plan to redevelop it.
In 2010-11, all-weather tracks were praised for hosting extra meetings and keeping the industry’s finances healthy during one of the longest winter freeze-ups for many years.
In 2012, Kempton Park’s ‘Bumpers for Jumpers’ all-weather flat race meeting attracted some leading Cheltenham Festival hopes, denied a run on turf by weeks of sub-zero temperatures.
be bordered by the sprint turf course. This area is now rented to a local farmer for haymaking, and also supplies some of the packing materials for the national hunt fences. Like most racecourses, Kempton Park plays host to a number of non-racing events, so year round presentation of the site is crucial. The Trilo vacuum also comes in handy for clearing up after regular antique and general markets, which take place on the car parks!
Working with the elements
Whilst the use of covers has become a lifeline to save winter meetings in icy conditions, they remain costly to deploy - in the region of £30,000. Therefore, predicting the weather accurately to decide whether or not to cover is as important before a national hunt meeting as it is to plan irrigation before an all-weather fixture. “We use a wide variety of weather
forecasting services from Metcheck to a Met Office subscription, and have contractors Sports and Stadia Services on hand with covers, in addition to the
After seeing the successful use of a false rail in South Africa, Barney decided to include one in the all- weather track at Kempton.
“Positioned at the two and a half furlong marker, the rail allows any horses that have been boxed in on the outer loop to spread out across the track, making for a fairer finish and more exciting racing,” he explains. “It has worked well at
Kempton and I am very pleased that I added it to the design.”
sheets that we ourselves put down on take-offs and landings,” explains Barney. But, sometimes, the weather can give the Director of Racing a few heart- stopping moments. On January 14th Kempton Park was scheduled to run its prestigious Lanzarote Hurdle day, offering important pre-Cheltenham Festival trials for a number of fancied horses. “The forecast for the 14th was never less than 1-2O
C, and we made the
decision not to cover as there was no indication that we needed to. Using frost covers for every fixture is a significant financial outlay, and can hit the profitability of specific days and affect overall prize money levels that we are able to offer. But, equally, it would have been costly to lose the meeting,” he says. “On the Friday evening, the temperature dropped below zero and, at 7.00am, was minus 5O
inspection at 11.00am, the temperature had risen back up to 1O
first race was run at 12.30, 4O decision was vindicated.”
C, so our
C. But, by our final C and, when the
Cousins Gallop-Master 100 PC APRIL/MAY 2012
Vaderstad Roller Power Harrow
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