Beverley confident of a quick fix before next meeting

Officials at Beverley are confident they will have repaired the track in time for next Tuesday’s meeting following the abandonment halfway through Monday’s fixture after the discovery of a issue with the surface.

The Yorkshire track was forced to call off the meeting for safety reasons after three races following the discovery of an area of concern around the seven-furlong start.

But after meeting with British Horseracing Authority course inspector Nicky Carlisle on Tuesday morning, chief executive Sally Iggulden insisted that all parties were confident a quick fix could be effected.

“It wasn’t a hole which is good news. It was just an issue with the turf having shallow roots with a tree adjacent to the seven furlong start robbing all the water from that area which has left the grass very stressed,” said Iggulden.

“What we have agreed to do is dig out that area of grass by the seven furlong start and replace it with fibresand and then move the stalls for the seven furlong start forward by 20 yards so that they start off that area and off the fibresand.”

Cheltenham were forced to abandon their final three fixtures of the season to deal with issues arising from collapsed drains while Haydock lost their meetings in July after a hole was discovered which was put down to historic mining activity in the area.

“We were pretty confident it wouldn’t be drains because we had a full radar or sonar survey done of the course 14 months ago,” said Iggulden. “We do know every part of the subsoil of the racecourse and you could see it wasn’t a hole, it was the turf stripped off the top.

“Owners of the horses which didn’t get to run last night have been compensated as have the jockeys and we hope that people (last night’s racegoers) will be able to join us again at the end of the year for our final meeting on September 22.

“We are happy we can get that work carried out between now and next Tuesday which will allow racing to go ahead. It will reduce the seven furlong races by about 13 yards.

“But it is good that we have been able to put a quick remedial measure into place that will get us up and running in time.”