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It makes a mockery of spending hours looking through form when the ground is not what is stated. They are going to end up with horses that are only seen at their best with ease in the ground. One of the beauties of racing is we can’t chose the weather we want. If its genuine good ground native trail will drift and point Lonsdale will be punted on. The ground shouldn’t dictate results not man made anyway. Highland reel would never have achieved his fantastic globetrotting feats today.
He needed good or better ground. Had even Frankel been constantly running on good to soft going I don’t think he would have achieved what he did. Let the clouds decide and only water if its absolutely necessary. More horses get injured out in the field than on racetracks and as someone whose friend owns a horse they get the most innocuous injures just walking.
The likes of baattash would have struggled and trueshan wouldn’t be the horse we love if it was on good to soft.
It makes me angry that coc seem to think it’s their duty to play god. Just let it be.I’m not a fan of overwatering either mickey especially at tracks like Ascot but Newmarket being mainly a chalk based soil will drain the water very quickly and I heard that Michael Prosser and team have invested in state of the art watering equipment which can cover the whole course very quickly and evenly to a avoid horses running through uneven patches this will also help to eliminate any draw bias.
Personally have no worries that Native Trail will drift in tbe betting.
I would take a bet that Newmarket ground is perfect on the day, plus they will probably be racing on the far track tomorrow leaving the standside track fresh for Saturday/Sunday..Jac
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Nice thought GT, but it’s the same part of the track for all three days, with the stalls in the same place (centre) as well.
The going stick figure given by Newmarket on Tuesday was 7.8
By Wednesday it had dried out enough to report 8.2 (it was 8.1 for the 2000 Gns last year).
They’ve put enough water on in the following 24 hrs to produce a going stick figure of 7.3 today.
Madness!
I accept the need to water for safety, but putting that much water down only 24 hours before the first race of the meeting is inviting the horses to kick the top off so that it looks like good to soft on TV, but it will still be good to firm three or four inches down. It also means that the track will be a mess by Sunday.
All imo of course.
How on earth did we manage in the days before clerks of the course poured shed loads of water onto our racecourses?
I make no apology for sounding like a stuck record.
G.T not responsible for that post ap.
I was hoping they would save the standside track for the weekend seeing as they have added the extra day this year.
I’m going on Sunday so better take my wellies in case I venture across the track to watch the new attraction being laid on by Michael Prosser and his team….
Horse Water Aerobics.
JacThings turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...I’ve probably long since bored everyone into a coma with my view, but suffice to say I agree with CAS and Alan.
It was almost 40 years ago to the day that I kipped in the launderette on Newmarket High Street Guineas week and I still remember what one of Bruce Hobbs’s veteran stable lads said to me when coming in to do some laundry.
“It’s such a good covering of grass here that it never gets that Firm and it never gets that Soft.”
The Rowley Mile is not a course which requires substantial watering, IMO.
I also think that watering to produce Good – as opposed to Good to Firm – ground for a Classic Flat meeting in the spring is a slippery slope.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"For day one, Prosser sticks to his going report of good, good to firm in places, with an overall going stick figure of 7.5.
However, according to the Turftrax going map provided here:
https://www.turftrax.co.uk/going_maps.html
The ‘good to firm places’, extend all the way from the mile start to the dip and only the last two furlongs are shown as good.
Lies, damned lies and going reports.
A reliable source has told me that “there’s no substitute for rain, you can water all you want but it’s not the same as rain”
If this is the view of head groundsmen at courses, maybe this is the reason for the overwatering? No idea if they’re correct in their thesis or not.
The ground at Leopardstown tonight is now “Good, Good to FIRM in places.”
Racing should be abandoned now!!
They say winning jockeys are usually complimentary about the ground if they win but both Frankie & Gosden said the ground was testing and on the softish side after having a winner on the first day at York, despite it being described as good.
Newbury CoC said today that he had watered (3mm) after racing yesterday to “put everyone’s mind at rest” and to maintain good ground. So obviously they are now watering to produce good ground rather than good to firm.
Why do they even things up when it doesn’t rain, disadvantaging fast ground horses but do nothing to even things up when it rains a lot?
Feel sorry for those connections of horses that prefer fast(er) ground as unless they can find a race at Bath (which seems perfectly capable of providing safe fast ground) they are quite frankly being forced out of British racing.
Cotc continue to help make the breed weaker by artificially watering to take firm out of the going description when good to firm with no jar should always be the ideal for flat racing, if mother nature than decides to intervene and dump some of the wet stuff on the ground then so be it as you can have no argument with that……but to have your chance in any race scuppered because the cotc got a bit too over zealous with the proverbial watering can is a sad state of affairs and totally uneccessary.
I do start to worry what will happen when we get to the stage that good ground is also deemed to be too fast.
I’ve said this many times here, LD73, so naturally I completely agree with you.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Beverley abandoned the other day due to slip ups (not watered) but Haydock abandoned last night (was watered) because William Buick complained…..
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