CHAPTER EIGHT

THE TRACKS
There are five all weather racecourses in Britain. Four are currently active with Great Leighs due to join them in the Autumn. Lingfield is the oldest, and the first all weather meeting in the country was staged there on their new equitrack surface in 1989. Southwell followed and in 1993 Wolverhampton joined them becoming Britain’s first floodlit racecourse. For the next thirteen years these three courses kept flat
racing going through the winter and many times kept the book making industry ticking over when jump racing had been abandoned. In March 2006 Kempton became Britain’s newest all weather track. With the latest generation of polytrack and a retractable floodlighting system Kempton became the first all weather track in the country to run right handed. Great Leighs should have been all weather course number four but construction problems and bad weather have delayed the opening until Autumn 2007.

As all weather racing becomes more popular, and more tracks come on line the need for reliable information increases. On turf the most important information is the state of the ground, and for any serious gambler an accurate up-to-date going report is essential. And yet despite this fact punters on the all weather have had to endure eighteen years of Standard going. With this third rate information is there any wonder they call the all weather, racings third code. For a start not only does the going vary from track to track it can vary dramatically on the same track from one meeting to the next.
On the all weather there are two factors that determine the going, the weather and the way the track is prepared. Track preparation involves both harrowing and rolling. At Southwell if frost is forecast they harrow deeper which slows the track down considerably. When the track has been rolled after rain it compacts and rides fast. On the eve of a meeting
the course officials are aware of prevailing weather conditions and they know how they are going to prepare the track surely it wouldn’t be too much trouble to give a brief report on how they expect the track to ride.