EQUESTRIAN


The Sisis slitter at the intersection of the figure eight - Windsor is unique for this configuration


The turf is showing increased vigour after regular coring


improved root penetration which is reflected in the strong grass growth,” says Dan. Racing once a week, there is ongoing pressure to not only produce a surface that is not only safe but also consistent throughout the season, week after week. Eloise admits that she has had to rebuild


jockeys’ confidence in the track. “They wanted to walk it and have a look at the ground, but once you get one respected jockey saying that it has improved, the others tend to follow suit. You can see that they have got their confidence back from the way they ride, rather than holding horses up to ensure that they don’t get unbalanced, they will ride competitively round the bend now.” Rather than putting all the water on in one pass, it is now applied in two passes, the first the day after racing and the second over the weekend before the following meeting. “We start with the straight as this is used


in all of the races, so gets the most wear,” she explains.


A tow line system is used, powered by an old diesel pump, with water extracted from a branch of the Thames. “We’re looking at using a Briggs boom, which would also give us the option to water at night,” comments Dan. “The ideal solution would be to combine the two and use the tow line on the bends, although this year’s weather conditions are unprecedented and we wouldn’t need to water this much normally.”


With just 1.8mm of rain in June, and


0.2mm in the first three weeks of July, effective irrigation has been vital this year. “In addition to the heat, the course is quite


breezy, so we lose 6mm/day in evapo- transpiration,” comments Eloise. “We’ve been putting 48mm on each time, which takes six hours to apply.”


The course is slit weekly to help irrigation penetrate and then scarified with an Opico


grass harrow once a fortnight. “We’d like to use a Verti-Drain to aerate but don’t have one in the fleet currently, although we can hire in for seasonal use.” “We plan to test a small area with the


Verti-Drain prior to doing more extensive work this September, as we believe there is now enough root development to benefit from it,” says Dan. Reviewing turf nutrition was the final piece of the jigsaw. “We started with a granular formulation of the root stimulant Activate R and then moved onto the liquid feed version, with such good results that we now treat the whole track with it.”


The plan this summer was to give a split feed of 12:4:8 slow release fertiliser in April and August, but the sward has done so well in the conditions the second application is on hold.


Mowing can be required twice a week in the peak growing season, although one benefit of the hot summer has been that the


A core removed from the bend, showing improved root structure


104 PC August/September 2018


Mowing is a quicker and more efficient process with the purchase of a Trimax Pegasus


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