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Times were faster than Racing Post standard on both days of the Epsom meeting.
It was genuine Good-Firm.
Without as much watering it would’ve been Firm.
Without any watering Hard / Unraceable.When you think of how many round actioned gallopers took their chance in these two Classics despite the surface… What would’ve been the headline if there had been fatalities in this of all Derbies? How damaging would the headline be had Frankie’s final Derby ride (who has an extreme round action) broken a leg, fallen and lost its life?
I know there is an arguement (which I don’t disagree with) widespread watering encourages connections taking their chance. But if clerks don’t water enough and connections do run – “There is (after all) only one Derby” – the long term effects from this one day could have been devastating to Racing in general.
I’d like to say well done Epsom groundstaff, for making the ground as safe as possible without detrimentally affecting firm ground horses chances.
Value Is EverythingDo round actioned horses actually break legs on firm though? Or just get jarred/ sore shins/ chipped carpal bones?
There was a bad fall on a bend at Tramore yesterday mind you, the horse looked like she completely flipped over and brought down another. I don’t know if she is OK.
Skittles at Tattenham Corner would be horrific.Cooper CAN get it right – Eclipse meeting at Sandown Park last year, this meeting – but he still gets it wrong too often and his inconsistent approach doesn’t help punters.
He’s not the only culprit – big ongoing issue at Haydock Park IMO.
I’d say York are the best big track for letting nature take its course within reason and York sets the bar for the best.
So well done Cooper for actually doing your job properly a couple of times in the last year – can you start doing it properly all the time from now on?
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Forecast for next 10 days includes a lot of rain forecast. Joy. Tacky ground at ascot. Expect there will be loads not running now.
I live in the general area and the current forecast locally is no rain now until 20th June (first day of the meeting at Ascot a week tomorrow) when there will be 2mm.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"With this current hot spell (also bear in mind they have been close to a month without rain) unless there is a significant amount of rain in these predicted storm showers they simply will not be able to apply the quantity of water onto the track to change it much from its current mixture of good to firm and firm description.
It will take mother nature’s intervention (and a big one at that) to even come close to removing firm from the description – Ascot’s website is saying that in the last 7 days they have received 0.2 mm of rain, so any water the course is receiving is from watering and in these current circumstances they should very much continue what they are doing.
Cotc take a lot of flack (rightfully so in some cases) for over watering in general and especially during iffy forecasts but in this case I think watering is fully justified.
What’s the problem with outright “Firm” ground?
I seem to remember Stanerra running TWICE on such a surface at Royal Ascot one year.
I’m sure you’re old enough to remember it too, LD73.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"After only 1.8mm rain yesterday, Ascot have put on 5mm water themselves ahead of tomorrow.
This despite 8mm rain forecast in the next 24 hours.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Looking at the actual hourly picture, its currently predicting heavy rain from 530am-730am. Hopefully, that changes again as that band of weather was initially looking to be further west, heading north.
Tough decisions for Stickels to make, I hope the course avoids a battering for he might receive a verbal one.I don’t think it was a tough decision tbh – it did rain a bit yesterday and significant rain is forecast tomorrow.
IMO he shouldn’t have watered – the only racing surface that isn’t permissible under the modern rules is “Hard.”
If it rains on watered ground and turns into a bog, he will deserve any criticism he gets.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Stannera. What a mare that was. War front has hardly any runners in the UK now. No wonder when his progeny love fast ground. If they get this wrong the number of non runners could be embarrassing. Great for horses like river tiber but if its soft come gold cup time the field could be decimated. Don’t we want to see another dayjur or lochsong bouncing off the ground. They are in danger of making fast ground stallions obsolete. Who is benefitting from this. No one as far as I can see.
I just looked two weather websites which says Ascot racecourse will get 1.5mm-2mm of rain all day tomorrow.
And I just looked at one that predicts 10mm in the next 24 hours – we shall see!
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Nottingham abandoned today due to waterlogged track after yesterday’s rain
No doubt they watered beforehand plenty
Have to be honest, in this case I am not against what they have done watering wise considering they missed the heavy showers that were in the area and the fact that they have had little to no rain over the past month.
Lets be fair, putting 5mm on in the morning is only going to maintain the existing ground as a sunny morning will quickly evaporate it before it really has a chance to get into the roots – if anyone who has a lawn will tell you, the best time to water is late afternoon/early evening when the temperature is much cooler and and water has the most amount of time to get into the ground.
Good to firm ground (with no jar in it) should be what they are aiming for without mother nature overriding things naturally, which is unfortunate for those that want softer ground but considering the heatwave we have had, it was never realistically going to be suitable for those type of horses.
Also to be fair, Nottingham had 45mm of rain in one night – so even if they had done no watering and the ground was very fast, the racecourse simply wouldn’t have been able to have absorbed that amount of rain into the ground quickly enough not to have had surface water sitting on it. That meeting was always going to be abandoned either way after getting hit by that much rain.
That being said, if mother nature does decide to dump the upper amount of what is being predicted in some forecasts then it will end up biting them and making them look stupid for watering. But just think if they hadn’t been watering at all over the last month (when they had little to no rain) it would have most likely ended up looking like it does at Bath Racecourse where the ground is firm or maybe even hard….you could only imagine the furoe that would bring.
Yes they don’t help themselves at times with the watering policy in general these days but they are damned if the do and damned if the don’t in a lot of case especially if you end up being in the lap of what the weather gods do (or don’t) rain wise.
“But just think if they hadn’t been watering at all over the last month”
Who has been calling for them to not water at all the last month?
Fortunately, they have left the Round Course (where the reading is already sub 7) alone.
“anyone who has a lawn will tell you” – any TRF non-lawn owners, you have been told!
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Farside: 7.9. Round: 6.8. Readings taken at 8am on Monday. 19-06-2023”I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
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