Equestrian
The Home Straight with the join between old and new courses barely perceptible
during the construction phase didn’t help either,” Jonjo comments. By 2015, the new section had finally
turned a corner, and feedback from both racehorse trainers and jockeys suggests that it is now hard to tell the difference between the old and new parts of the course. One fortuitous consequence of the
realignment is the gentler radius of the home bend, which has proved suitable for a new venture into flat racing. “Wetherby has always been an all-jumps
track,” explains Jonjo, “with our best attended meeting being 26-27th December and the top quality race, the Charlie Hall Chase, in October. But we thought we’d trial flat racing in 2014 and held four meetings in 2015.” Flat races are run on the hurdle course, with the 148m radius home bend giving the
safe running needed for high speed flat horses, and Jonjo reports that preparing the track is a seamless process. “We finish jump racing at the beginning of
May and then have two weeks to turn the track round for the flat. The course is 60m wide, so it is easy to designate 17m for flat racing; Milton Keynes Surveys plotted the racing line and we just have to position the rail.”
The 2015 meetings were a huge success, not only drawing runners from the two local training centres, but from as far afield as Newmarket and Lambourn. At two of the four meetings, the racecourse stables were full to capacity. “We have to bear in mind that 2014-15
was a mild, dry winter, so preparations this year might be more of a challenge, especially as we’ve had to use some of the hurdles
PC APRIL/MAY 2016 I 91
The indigenous soil had been double screened which, it is now believed,
contributed to some of the compaction which was experienced
”
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