Action from the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot

Latest on Royal Ascot ground and decision to start watering the course while it's raining

Horse Racing
Thu June 11, 2026 · 2w ago

Ascot Clerk of the Course Chris Stickels admits it is "rare" to be watering the course on a rainy day ahead of the start of the Royal meeting next Tuesday.

The official going description updated on Thursday morning was 'Good to Firm, Good in places' and Stickels has an eye on the moisture levels in the soil, with "little, if any" rain expected throughout next week and windy conditions in the forecast over the days to come.

He explained on Thursday's edition of the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: "We're in pretty good shape at the moment, our going is Good to Firm, Good in places. It has just started to spit here with rain; we are due a little bit today - 5mm, but we are actually watering, and you'll probably be surprised to hear that, but we are actually watering at the minute.

"Obviously, our aim is to start the meeting on the Good side of Good to Firm. 
And the kind of going stick readings and soil moisture we want to achieve to deliver that. We've got a dry forecast after today's rain, and it does turn very windy for Friday and Saturday.

"We need to ensure that we've got even moisture distribution through the soil profile in order to maintain that kind of Good to Firm ground through the meeting. 
So to ensure that we've got that, watering today is the answer. If we try to catch up tomorrow and Saturday, with the wind that's forecast, we would struggle and we'd end up just wetting the top surface."

Chris Stickels Clerk of the Course at Ascot Racecourse

Asked if watering the course with rain forecast is an unusual occurrence when it comes to course management, Stickels said: "It is rare and you wouldn't normally do it, but for a five-day meeting and you play the scenarios out of what you need to consider.

"I mean, we're a sand-based track, it dries very quickly, and we're only watering the straight, by the way. The wind that's forecast tomorrow, in fact starting from lunchtime today right through until Sunday, is not going to enable us to deliver efficient irrigation. It's going to be blowing all over the place, we're not going to be able to get it down evenly across the track and it's not going to soak in, it's going to dry out on top.

"So, you play the scenarios out and what's the worst case? Well, probably actually the best case would be to get 10mm today because then we probably wouldn't need to think about irrigating until Monday. Worst case scenario, we get 3mm today and then we need to be chasing it. Then it's windy and we're not delivering the irrigation efficiently onto the surface, and it's drying out on top, and we end up on Tuesday with Good to Firm ground, but a drying soil profile underneath, and then we've got to put more water on between days in order to kind of maintain that.

"It's a difficult situation to deal with. You're also at risk instead of having a drier sub-surface and getting a thunderstorm on it, and having a slippery top-surface. So you play the scenarios out and you realise that actually getting the water on now, even when it's raining, will achieve what we want to achieve.

"We know that the forecast is pretty set fair, really, from tomorrow, right through until Tuesday and therefore we can irrigate accordingly after today if we need to, and perhaps we won't need to.

"There's very little, if any, (rain expected throughout the five days of the Royal meeting). We're expecting 22-26C at the moment.

"Look, we've got five days between now and starting the meeting, the first race at 230 on Tuesday afternoon is a long way away from now. And after today there's no rain forecast between now and then.

"It isn't that difficult a decision for for today.
We've got a sand-based track that will drain very quickly and we've got very blustery conditions for 48 hours from lunchtime today, which would make it very difficult to irrigate efficiently and accurately. Not only do we want to start off with an even soil moisture profile with ground on the Good side of Good to Firm, but we also wanted to be as fair as possible, and in order to do that, you need to get the irrigation evenly across the whole width of the track, and that's very hard to do in the wind."

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