Plenty to reflect on for officials as November Meeting comes to a close
Final day had to pass an impromptu inspection before racing.
Cheltenham clerk of the course Jon Pullin admitted there were several items which warranted further analysis and discussion after an eventful November Meeting concluded on Sunday.
Issues surrounding the bend into the home straight which saw several horses appearing to slip on the Friday and which suffered with standing water after more rain on Sunday than had been expected was one obvious issue.
Accurate communication of the ground conditions with several trainers withdrawing horses after walking the track was another, while there is the more general response to track management caused by issues outside of Cheltenham’s control given drier summers and apparent climate change.
“They are the three main areas of focus definitely. It is too early to say (what should be done differently). We need to get through today then reflect in the cold light of day,” Pullin – who was unable to water overnight into Saturday due to frost – told Racing TV.
Cheltenham suffered from multiple withdrawals on account of ground conditions on days one and two, before the rain after the track had been able to be watered altered matters significantly on day three.
Pullin had to deal with an impromptu early inspection for the Greatwood Hurdle card on Sunday and explained: “The team did a fantastic job and got eight millimetres on everywhere last night, given the conditions yesterday were riding a little bit quicker than we would have hoped.
“We got that on last night with a forecast of 2-3mm (of rain) this morning. We had had the reports of slipping on Friday so we carried out the remedial work yesterday and everything went without a hitch on those bends, but it has just meant that the 12mm in a short space of time this morning led to a considerable amount of standing water down there.
“The fear was, once that had soaked in over the next couple of hours, there was a risk of some false ground so what we have done is realigned and created one common bend on fresh ground through the middle of both chase and hurdle bends.
“We have done it before, but not necessarily an hour before the first race. At this meeting last year you will remember we had a lot of rain on the Friday. That necessitated a common bend on the Saturday and we stayed there on the Sunday as well.
“We have done it before, but different circumstances this time.”
The final day did see another slip on the level, this time with The Hardest Geezer coming a cropper on the bend entering the straight in the Greatwood Hurdle under Ben Jones.
Both horse and rider appeared to emerge unscathed, with Jones explaining to stewards the horse had slipped “due to its own action and not that of the ground”.