Goodwood - Off

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Clerk of the course Seamus Buckley said: "We've had up to two inches of rain in the last 24 hours, and no ground could take that.
"We held an inspection at around 6.15am and the track was unraceable in places.
"There's also more rain forecast, so it's bitterly disappointing."

Saturday's meeting at Goodwood, featuring the totesport.com Celebration Mile, must pass an 8.30am precautionary inspection on Friday morning.
 
Depends on whether you had your horse all primed and ready for the lesser card today, Hamm. Quite honestly, how that course, built on a hill, which is known for usually being on the firm side of good can be unraceable after all the dry weather the SE has experienced is beyond me - I would be a tad ashamed if I were groundsman in charge, to be honest!
 
Saturday's card has been seriously undermined though by the withdrawals . The Celebration Mile now has a small field with a couple of G3 horses at best in it.
 
Songsheet said:
Depends on whether you had your horse all primed and ready for the lesser card today, Hamm. Quite honestly, how that course, built on a hill, which is known for usually being on the firm side of good can be unraceable after all the dry weather the SE has experienced is beyond me - I would be a tad ashamed if I were groundsman in charge, to be honest!
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Pity for them but racing, and the better racing (& pattern) must come first.

You could be being a little unfair to the groundsman - he clearly hadn't watered, but the rain has been intense and I'm not sure what exactly you would have like him to do?!
 
Goodwood's ground can change surprisingly quickly when there is a lot of rain and hill or no, there is only so much rain the ground can take! I can only imagine that the dips would be worst affected but, like DJ, suspect that today's meeting has been sacrificed on the altar of the two fixtures on the weekend.
 
Hamm said:
Pity for them but racing, and the better racing (& pattern) must come first.

You could be being a little unfair to the groundsman - he clearly hadn't watered, but the rain has been intense and I'm not sure what exactly you would have like him to do?!
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Not really unfair, Hamm - there are other courses that would have more of a problem with drainage and excessive rain than I would expect a course such as Goodwood to have, bearing in mind the ground wasn't saturated with rain over previous weeks, as happened frequently last year. The SE has had an incredibly long period of dry weather, so you'd have to suspect that their drains might be blocked to have so quickly become unraceable - and that is part of a groundman's remit, surely, to keep the drains running well ?

I can well understand the logic of preserving the ground for the 'better' racing this weekend from the racecourse's point of view and the betting public but if you were the owners of all the horses entered up today, I doubt you'd have the same opinion and quite rightly so - especially if you'd been hoping for good to soft for your (more lowly rated ?) horse all this summer in the South!! Even less so if you suspected better ground management might have meant both meetings being going ahead.

Not an easy task to keep any course in good working order - believe me I do know as groundwork on the farm wouldn't be massively different !
 
Rain kicked off again big time tonight in Brighton and surrounding areas - still sloshing down. It'd rained enough at Lingfield, too, that the groundsmen were still hosing up the under-course tunnel this morning as it had flooded. The drains there do flow very well and are actually quite good streams, complete with bulrushes and ducks!
 
Curent info on BHA website regarding Saturdays meeting.

GOODWOOD - Flat (Updated:27/08/2010 at 08:04)
GoingSoft
(GoingStick: To be updated after todays inspection on Friday at
00:00)

StallsStraight Stand side; Round Course inside
RailsFresh ground last 6 furlongs of 1 mile course

Weather2mm of rain since midnight.Weather settling down from midday
today, dry and warmer over the week-end

InspectionsCourse has passed inspection and Racing goes ahead with no
further inspections planned
 
I would say tomorrow is very doubtful if they are having the same rain at Goodwood that there is in London.
 
Goodwood have told the RP they don't anticipate any further problems and that racing will go ahead. That nicely answers all the 'cynics' who think they sacrificed last night's meeting for the weekend I guess - I struggle to see how in 24 hours (during which more rain fell!) they can go from being unraceable to 'not anticipating any further problems' ...
 
Our county forecast is for it to 'get much better'... on Monday! I don't see how they can be so sure, either.
 
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