Wincanton abandoned

[Gladiateur]

Due to hard ground…

https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/wincantons-season-opener-called-off-due-to-hard-ground/582603

Martin Pipe would only have trained about three winners in his entire career if current attitudes towards the state of the ground had prevailed back in his day.

[Cork All Star]

It is a well known fact that some of these West Country tracks produce hard ground. I suppose no one can do anything about the weather but if they are not allowed to race on hard ground nowadays, is there any point allocating fixtures to these tracks at this time of year? I seem to recall Wincanton and Taunton lost meetings last season as well.

All a far cry from the days of Devon and Exeter and Buckfastleigh which raced in late summer precisely because they had fast ground.

[LD73]

Don’t have an issue with it being abandoned due to hard ground as in this day and age I don’t think it is correct to have NH races on that kind of ground in the first place….even though it was done in the past

Good to firm is much more of a judgement call because those conditions under good course management can provide safe ground with no jarring in it and for me the only interference COTC should be making is taking jar out of the ground if mother nature has not done so naturally, their remit should not be to provide ground conditions no quicker than on the soft side of good regardless – if you have a horse that doesn’t act on fast ground then don’t run it just the same as those with horses that don’t want soft ground don’t run.

If you have a horse that you feel you can’t risk racing on even genuine good ground (without human interference) then you really have no business having that horse in NH racing, although maybe you should opt to take it over to France and run there where easier ground is practically a given and prize money in general is better.

With regards to deciding when and where NH fixtures are allocated, I wonder if they do take into account weather trends and/or previous meeting abandonments to ensure that fixture are given the maximum chance of being run?

[IanDavies]

Just looking at a 1980/81 form book, Hard ground at Devon & Exeter in August and double-digit fields in some races.

I remember being there and the grass actually being parched yellow.

But they don’t breed horses like that any more – who was the last proper Firm ground stayer who went to stud?

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[Purwell]

who was the last proper Firm ground stayer who went to stud?

I thought you were!!

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways

[Miss Woodford]

“But they don’t breed horses like that any more”

Funny, many horses of perfectly modern breeding quite like the firmer ground found on US courses. Japan’s jumps horses seem to do just fine with firm ground too. Next year an American trainer is planning on taking one of her horses (Bodes Well, imported from the UK back in 2019) to run in Japanese cross-country races, apparently Japan has been building up that division and the purses are quite attractive…

[Salut A Toi]

But they don’t breed horses like that any more – who was the last proper Firm ground stayer who went to stud?

Gildoran?

[Author]

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