Equestrian
Www.fornells.com
Fornells 10100 Running Rail
Fornells 10108 Running Rail
A work in progress, but perfection is days away for Goodwood’s racing surface
Crowd Barrier & Gates
main all around the course. An Upton Irrigator, which connects to the main at points around the course, is what delivers the goods for Seamus and his head groundsman Sean Martin, who’s been his right-hand-man at Goodwood for nearly sixteen years. “The boom sprayer is
probably the best piece of equipment we’ve bought in my time here. It’s certainly a godsend this year,” says Seamus. The Australian-made irrigator
drops 10mm of water as it travels at a furlong an hour around the course. Lately, it’s been in daily use from 8.00 in the morning until 7.00 each evening. That’s a mile and a quarter a day of watering. It’s a skilled, if somewhat tedious, job and Sam Cook is the Goodwood team operator. Seamus emphasises its
importance to the course work. “The irrigator means you’re guaranteed water rail to rail the whole way round. There’s hardly any wastage.” The course is kept cut to four
inches by Votex rotary mowers, front-mounted to four John Deere tractors. In decent autumn and winter conditions, it gets cut back to two inches and, in Seamus’ words, “gets a good scratching by chain harrow to get rid of all the rubbish”. He uses a seed mix, made exclusively for Goodwood by Fargrow of Littlehampton, that comprises perennial ryegrass, red fescue, smooth-stalked meadow grass and highland brown-top bent. The suppliers provide all course needs,
including fertilisers and sprays, as well as the seed, and are near neighbours just a phone call away. For Seamus, there will always
be four basic essentials: decent cutting, feeding and watering, plus regular aeration. “Do these well and you won’t go far wrong,” he says. He is a great advocate of
spiking and will do it any time of year, especially right after racing. “At the Qatar Festival meeting, there will be 500 or so runners and that’s a lot of compaction,” he says. “You’re down into solid chalk after just four inches, so the vibration of verti-draining isn’t a good idea. A Sisis spiker with 6-7 inch tines does work very well though, letting in ample, beneficial airflow.” After a race meeting, the
grass gets a bit of a trimming, and divots put back, filled and re-seeded. Forking and divot repair are carried out each evening after racing by the Goodwood team, aided, if required, by manpower from Sterling Services. There are seven full-timers in the Goodwood course care team but, for big meetings like the upcoming Qatar Festival, quite a number of ‘casuals’ will be engaged.
Indispensible to Seamus is the
TurfTrax Going Stick, the official means of declaring going. This and his own wooden walking stick are his dual means of assessing the state of the course. “The two get on well together,” he says, “but the TurfTrax is marvellously
The Dakota range is specially designed for the fast transportation & application of top dressing. They will handle both wet and dry materials, allowing light to heavy dressing.
Call +44 (0)1260 224568 or visit
www.campeyturfcare.com
PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015 I 119
UK Distributers of Fornells Products 01748822666 / 07966529666
www.wattfences.com billwattfences@aol.com
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