Presumably attending to another sinking ship??
Clerks of the Course walk their entire courses (well, those who know what they're doing, anyway) a week before racing and get an initial stick reading, then they walk again at the 4-day decs stage, the day before racing, and early on the morning of racing. Throughout these marches, they take readings from several (at Brighton, it's 20, so considerably more for bigger courses with longer races) places - the going stick is pronged three times, close together, in all those places, and the three prongings provide the average read-out for that spot. Which is why one part of the course could come up with 7.2 and another with 8.4. Where you know you've usually got either a hard spot or a soft spot must be included in the testings, so you know whether to call it (say) G to F in places, or G to S in places. At Brighton, the whole course is watered with a Briggs boom irrigator, meaning all of it gets an even flow of water. Problems arise when Clerks don't water uniformly, or put too little on to get right into the ground, thus creating slippy surfaces. That the Clerk at Ayr would've walked the course 'on Monday, just prior to racing' is silly - she'd have had to have walked it several times in the days before racing, and early on the morning of racing (usually around 6.30) to determine the reading for the day. Clerks usually text trainers their going reports in the early morning, so that if the change overnight is from, say, Good to G to F in places, decisions to withdraw on account of the ground can be made then, and save some horses from making unnecessary journeys. The Clerks give the going stick readings, and the day's weather forecast, such as 'drying, s-w light breeze, sunny' - which could indicate further drying-out of the ground throughout the day.
I can't imagine that Ayr's Clerk walked the course in the early morning, decided the final going, and then watered the course!
