Newmarket facing up to ground concern

Unlike many of Newmarket’s equine residents the Rowley Mile course has not thrived during the unusually dry spring.

The track played host to over 1,000 runners in the autumn and that allied with a distinct lack of rainfall over the last 10 weeks has left the Newmarket ground staff with a headache ahead of next week’s Craven Meeting which gets under way next Tuesday.

“It has been a bit of a nightmare,” said clerk of the course Michael Prosser.

“I’d be the first to admit that it’s not looking as good as we’d like out there, but it’s level, it’s consistent and with some warmer weather and a bit of rain it’ll take off and I’m confident that it’ll be in great nick for the Sagitta Guineas Festival.

“In February we had less than one inch of rain at Newmarket and no less than 15 overnight ground frosts.

“In March we had just over half an inch of rain and the mean daytime soil temperature has been hovering between only six and eight degrees Celcius. It needs to achieve 10 degrees for active growth.

“As a result we have only cut the Rowley Mile once.

“We started watering on March 25, which is unheard of at Newmarket, and will be applying a further five millimetres of water to the course today as the forecast is for dry weather until the weekend. Then it looks as if we may be fortunate enough to get some showers, though we could miss all of them.”

The going is currently good to firm.