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Well that’s 19 races lost in the last 2 days to overnight frost. Going by Levy Board figures at an average of 10 grand a race that’s 190 grand lost to racing. Sandown tell us it costs them 20 grand to cover their racecourse. So if the 3 courses involved over the last 48 hours had the opportunity of covering their tracks, perhaps 130 grand could have potentially been saved.
Time for National Hunt racecourses, the BHA and the Levy Board to get their act together on the issue and come up with a scheme that makes frost covers available to any racecourse within a 24 hour notice period, if even the slightest possibility of frost has been forecast for the relevant period.
Very frustrating for everyone again today.
I think they’d put alot more money & effort into it if the covers were a guarantee that racing would still go ahead.
But Haydock back on December 19th had the covers on as did Doncaster at the weekend & both were lost anyway.
Cheltenham was also covered & that was very much touch & go.I’m glad you’ve brought up the subject as it means I can tell everyone about my ‘all weather jumps’ plan. I was going to give it’s own thread but I don’t think an entire thread declaring my stupidity would do much for my ego!
Here goes nothing:
Alot of football grounds now have undersoil heating & it’s saved no end of games. Now obviously, undersoil heating of an entire racecourse would be so expensive to install & run than it renders the idea an absurdity.
So what I think they should do is take an all weather track (I’m thinking Southwell), rip up sections of it to be replaced with turf & put fences on those areas. Then install undersoil heating in those areas. I reckon 50 yards either side of the fence should be enough.
Obviously, they’d never be able to stage flat racing there again but they could be on standby to hold jumps meetings at short notice where weather has put paid to everyone else. And would anyone miss the flat AW there really?
So, there it is. A work of genius or the stupidest idea ever. I’m yet to decide myself.
think they’d put alot more money & effort into it if the covers were a guarantee that racing would still go ahead.
But Haydock back on December 19th had the covers on as did Doncaster at the weekend & both were lost anyway.
Cheltenham was also covered & that was very much touch & go.Fair enough, but the temperatures on those nights went down to -8/-9 and the freezing temperatures were prolonged over days and weeks. Leicester was only -1/-2 last night and if the covers had gone on early enough Newcastle would have had a fair chance, they were raceable yesterday evening. Under the current setup most courses have no chance even with moderate sub zero night time temperatures. Everybody loses.
All American turf courses in the Midwest/Northeast lay dormant from November-March. Most trainers move their stock, regardless of surface preference, to Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, or California. Unfortunately UK trainers can’t just move their horses to warmer climes.
This is another reason why summer chasing makes sense, seeing as the lovely Palm Peach Polo Grounds aren’t an option.
Trouble is it is very expensive in terms of man-hours to lay down and then take off the covers. Only the bigger tracks could afford it and summon the man-power. Also they really need to be down in plenty of time – well before it gets near freezing – and this could mean squabbling over BHA shared ones.
What happened to the Betfair fleece idea?
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Would it not be possible to install collapsible rails – or else enable more than a path’s width to be removed at a time – and utilise the hover-covers that have preserved many a cricket pitch this season? Although only five yards wide, they can be anything up to 35 yards long and can have frost sheets mounted on rollers on either side.
They would obviously have to be BHA-owned given the associated cost of purchase, but they’d be easier to transport, easier to position, easier to remove and could be manoeuvred to any part of the course. They’re also made by the same company (Stuart Canvas) that supply the current frost covers.
Failing that, why not trial the latest offering by Climate Cover? Their frost covers (supposedly) prevent ground frost at any temperature down to -60C, can (with ‘multiple layering’) prevent frozen ground at any temperature down to -6C and measure up to 75m x 108m.
Cost is obviously a concern but, as Cav has intimated, it’s a more than worthwhile investment for the greater good of racing. What’s £500,000 now when a) it prevents the loss of £70,000 per previously abandoned meeting and b) £250,000 was handed to a consultancy firm to state the bloody obvious?
Plumpton have managed to save two of their meetings in recent weeks thanks to deploying frost covers so if they can do it then others surely can.
Admittedly Plumpton is only 1m 1f round so presumably it works out a bit cheaper covering the track and will take less time to remove the covers, but without them I doubt those meets would have taken place.Turnover/punters losses do not follow a linear additive model. You don’t just get an extra 10k for each race you put on. This is somthing the Rabble (Peter Savill in particular) have failed to grasp in the last decade – hence the bulging fixture list.
Are these meetings really economical to save?
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