What Lies Beneath?
With the recent events at Beverley and the more alarming sight of arms disappearing up to the elbow in holes at Haydock and Cheltenham the safety of the racing surface has never been under more scrutiny. To social media at least it seems inconceivable that such issues cannot be avoided but how realistic is it to expect every racecourse fully knows what lies beneath and what are the changes going forward that these incidents will necessitate?
A few years ago during my time on the board at Wincanton we were faced with an issue regarding a flight of hurdles on the side of the course by the stables. There was an area of ground which just did not drain as consistently as the surrounding areas and because of that the hurdle was constantly being omitted.
Suspicion fell on a house that had been built nearby and whether during its construction some old drainage had inadvertently been capped. As the work required to address the issue was a significant sum it would have looked rather foolish had the excavations begun only to discover clearing a couple of obstructions would have cheaply solved the problem.
