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Surely if we can put a man on the moon, we can work out an economical and effective way of covering a racecourse?
The problem is that right now we can’t afford to put another man on the moon…..
True, but a few square miles of blankets is likely to be significantly cheaper than a space shuttle, associated rockets and fuel….
Courses geographically close to each other could share, too.
I’m surprised/disappointed that Kempton have called off Saturday already especially with it being a higher profile meeting. We all know how volatile weather patterns are in this country these days so could they not have given it more chance with milder weather forecast for later in the week?
Kelso on Friday or Warwick on Saturday look to be the only hopes for us NH fans at the moment
They probably could not have afforded the risk, read the following
I actually think Kempton are being sensible in this instance.
They have acted quickly and ensured they will have televised racing at the track on Saturday.
There was never the remotest chance of racing at Kempton taking place this Saturday, frost covers or no frost covers.
The frost is well into the ground in this part of the world, with no thaw in sight.
There will be an additional jumps fixture at Ayr on Saturday (weather permitting) – so some hope for Northern racing fans – first race 1:20
I can’t believe that anyone was that surprised that the covers didn’t work at Sandown – they endured prolonged, bitterly cold temperatures that weren’t rising a lot during the day. Nobody ever really thought these frost covers were a guarantee of getting racing on, did they?? Or even a guarantee of keeping the ground frost free?? From quotes I have read, it certainly seems as though Sandown made the mistake of assuming they’d stop all frost from entering the ground.
I am worried about Wetherby on Saturday. Its really cold here and the ground at home is frozen solid.
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I can’t believe that anyone was that surprised that the covers didn’t work at Sandown – they endured prolonged, bitterly cold temperatures that weren’t rising a lot during the day. Nobody ever really thought these frost covers were a guarantee of getting racing on, did they?? Or even a guarantee of keeping the ground frost free?? From quotes I have read, it certainly seems as though Sandown made the mistake of assuming they’d stop all frost from entering the ground.
Sandown reported that they were raceable on Friday.
What they couldn’t foresee was a temperature drop to below minus 6 overnight, or how effective frost covers would be against such low temperatures.
None of which means they shouldn’t have done their damndest (Which they did – eventually) to ensure every possible chance of the meeting being saved, nor should it to any future major meeting.Sandown also reported that the track was raceable at 8am on Saturday – why, had they not looked under the covers? Did they just assume that the frost covers would keep it all out?
It appears so – the headlines on the RP tonight come out with idiotic statements like " Tracks admit that covers are not ‘magic solution’ " with an accompanying article that states that the covers don’t offer a guarantee of racing – no sh*t, Sherlock! I’d have thought that was patently obvious to most and had already pointed that out to a mate a few days previously.
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SL
Maybe in future they’ll just phone you, and not bother with the covers?
Light drizzle and 3c here in Middlesbrough at the moment so maybe there’s light at the end of the tunnel…
The forecast for Ayrshire is frost free up to the weekend, with a positively balmy 9 degrees for Saturday, so on that basis Ayr looks a decent bet for Saturday. Kelso is not quite so certain for Friday, but only a light frost if any, so it may depend on how quickly current frost comes out of the ground.
Surely the problem is not a case of the covers working or not, but of when they are applied. Cheltenham got their covers down quickly and in plenty of time, I also assume they had enough staff and helpers to get them on and off quickly. Sandown only got the majority of their covers after Cheltenham’s meeting had finished and clearly didn’t have enough staff employed which was why it was going to take over 2 hours to remove them.
Admittedly there was a milder night on Thursday going into Friday which maybe gave them a flase sense of security, but one can’t help feeling had Sandown made a bit more effort and been a bit more proactive, they may well have saved Saturday.
I know you can’t compare a football pitch with a massive racecourse, but a couple of years ago I helped Rochdale FC get their pitch unfrozen to ensure an FA Cup tie took place along with several dozen supporters using hot air blowers and burning braziers. I believe Macclesfield town did something similar on Saturday for their cup tie with Everton. I bet if they gave free admission for helpers at racecourses and mobilised themselves better, they could easily get some of these bigger weekend meetings on using similar methods. In the long run it makes greater financial sense given the extra levy money they would get. And this sharing covers is totally unacceptable. Half the time they are going on after the frost has already got in which makes them next to useless.With regard to the covers at Cheltenham, someone, who was on the course that day, reported on another forum, that the ground not covered was as raceable as the ground that wasn’t covered, which suggests that the covering was irrelevant in that case.
Colin
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Sandown said (Yesterday’s RP) that there was no frost in the ground on Friday and the course was perfectly raceable. Whatever the weather was previously, at that stage everything looked set fair for the meeting to go ahead.
What they could not foresee – neither could anyone else, truth be told – was how much the temperature would drop overnight; had it dropped to minus 4, rather than minus 6, there was every possibilty that racing could have taken place, as the covers have proved effective in similar situations previously.
Far from them claiming the course as raceable on Saturday, Derek Thompson was with them at 8.00 a.m. when they lifted the covers, and immediately reported on the Morning Line that the meeting was off, thus transferring himself to Kempton.
While some may have different agendas, imo courses should be applauded for making every effort to save major race meetings and not villified. Sandown were unlucky on Saturday & had to pick up the tab for a reported 20k; it needs no mathematical genius to work out that racing’s gain would have been many times higher, had they succeeded.
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