EQUESTRIAN
Chris (left) and Roger Jones have more than seventy years’ experience between them
Low loading trailers carry the rubber mats for the road crossings and save multiple trips with the mats on pallets
on the back and far side. “We’ve also added sprinklers on the chase course with the first ones going in just before I started, and last season I had another lot put in over the far side under the woods - they are a godsend,” says Tom, who lives on site and has taken charge of irrigation and the early starts required. The main B4635 road divides the course and there are no less than seven road crossings in total, which provide a challenge: “The road is covered on racedays with a system of mats for the horses to run over - rubber underneath and coir on top. We have two trailers with rubber mats on for the main crossing and a team of eight men put them down on the morning of the meeting. They pull the rubber mats out onto the road, unroll the coir mats over them and put sand in the joints. At the end of racing, they roll the coir mats up, lace them up again and take the rubber mats away,” explains Tom. “It is labour intensive, but we use the same team of eight men at every meeting and they work well together. During racing
they attend the fences nearest the crossings so they are on hand for the removal.” Rubber mats were previously kept on pallets, transported one at a time, but investment in the low loading trailers has made the job a lot easier, he points out. Simon comments that there is quite a cost involved - the coir mats are replaced on a rolling programme at cost of £20,000 per year and the edges of the course have to be returfed each summer due to the added wear.
There are other practical implications too - the road means that service vehicles can’t follow horses the whole way round the course, so a quad and a UTV are used to keep an eye on the runners as they race. The track also surrounds Ludlow Golf
Club, which has an impact on the turf as the fairway crossings become compacted by golfer traffic. On racedays, the club is closed, and racegoer cars parked on the fairways.
“When I started, I knew that quite a few changes were needed to the groundcare
regime,” explains Tom. “Ludlow Racing Club is run by a board of directors rather than a single manager, so I can make decisions, discuss them with Simon and then action them, unless major investment is needed.” Tom has worked closely with Tom Weaver from turf specialist ALS Amenity, undertaking soil sampling to assess nutrient needs, although the track is already showing improvements from updates made to the fertiliser and seeding regimes.
A move from agricultural granular fertiliser to specialist products has had a significant impact on the growth and condition of the turf, with Generate 12:3:9, which contains seaweed, applied in spring to support the end of season fixtures.
During the closed season, overseeding with Action Replay, which includes a number of new ryegrasses, brought rapid establishment and good cover ready for the start of the autumn 2018 season, when slow release fertiliser Lebanon ProScape 12:6:24 was applied.
“This has helped the turf keep its colour
The mats in place the day before racing, ready for unrolling ahead of the first race
106 PC February/March 2019
A distinctive feature of Ludlow Racecourse is that it is dissected by road crossings, which have to be covered with rubber and coir mats for racing
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