Equestrian
The new national hunt course on the inside of the flat track has been drained and sand slit this summer
Inclement weather
Haydock Park’s location in the north west means that it gets plenty of rainfall - the average is some 1100mm a year.
But the new drainage system showed its mettle in the difficult summer of 2012, as Maurice recounts.
“We had a two day summer meeting with a music concert scheduled on the Friday evening. But, on Friday morning, rainwater which had run off the car parks was six inches deep in front of the stands, so we reluctantly had to abandon. By Saturday, the water had completely drained away and we were able to race.”
The National Hunt season brings wintry weather with it, and Haydock Park uses frost covers from Sports and Stadia Services, plus its own supply of carrot fleece. But covering the course is not always a straightforward matter.
“Whether the track will freeze depends on so many factors,” Maurice comments. “And covers will not always save racing. You can also take the covers off only for the temperature to drop again and still lose the meeting!”
He adds that keeping a good covering of grass, in tip top condition, is one of the best forms of protection for the course.
Inner and outer tracks were rebuilt separately to enable racing to continue but the result is a completely level finish
possible - and which helped with the decision making process when it came to planning the developments - is Haydock Park’s use of portable fences. “We started with fixed brush hurdles, which are used to help horses progress from hurdles to chase fences, and they were so successful we had portable steeplechase fences built,” explains Maurice. “Their frame is a trailer chassis, allowing them to be moved easily from the track to the yard for maintenance over the summer before being towed into place in October.” Portables offer lots of advantages as Maurice points out: “They cost around £7000 each to build, as opposed to £4000 for a fixed fence, but the maintenance and labour costs are considerably less. Using portables also minimises the compaction that is caused by shunting machinery around a fence and the build-up of ground from using divot mix in the same place on the take- offs. If there is an issue with the ground in a particular area, we can simply remove the fence, without having to rail it off.”
The continual quest for improvements has not ended yet. In 2012, Haydock purchased an Imants Shockwave rotary decompactor, which is used in conjunction with an existing Vertidrain 7626 to relieve compaction, aerate the
soil and encourage root growth. “The Vertidrain is very good, but we felt it would be beneficial to add a further decompaction operation,” explains Maurice. “The Shockwave works to 9-10in, followed by the Vertidrain at 9in and the procedure leaves a clean finish. We treat both the flat and national hunt tracks at the end of their respective seasons, and the results have been very impressive.”
In between, the track is slit once a month to encourage free drainage and promote root growth, and mowing takes place three times a week, using a front mounted Votex rotary. The entire track is cut to 3.5in during the summer, with the jumps course allowed to grow to 4-4.5in for the winter. “We used to cut the national hunt track much shorter in the summer but, as there is a small amount of overlap between the courses now, it all needs to be the same length,” Maurice comments. “It’s important not to let it get too long as straggly growth can develop.” A Trimax Stealth is deployed once or twice a week to keep the runway at the centre of the course smooth enough to allow racegoers to arrive by helicopter or light plane. A carefully planned fertiliser
programme takes account of the year- round racing programme which means
The bend in action in autumn 2011 128 PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
A Charterhouse Vertidrain has been joined by an Imants Shockwave for post-season renovation, relieving compaction and encouraging improved root growth
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