Going: Hard

Yes don't know what year it was lasted used guessing late 80's but sure someone on here will be able to tell us.

bath always comes up like a road during summer months

this june was the driest on record in the south east, i cant even remember the last time we had rain and i live 20 miles north of london

Yes SL I remember going to jumps cards with that going description.

Well remember Taunton and Devon being hard august time in the 80's

taunton had to call off a meeting last year due to hard ground

hereford as well (switched the fixture to worcester)

In August/September 1990, Plumpton, Devon and Exeter, Fontwell, Hereford all raced on officially hard going - and Ludlow abandoned a meeting on the basis of 'ground unsafe due to drought'.

Jul 3, 2018 -- 1:56PM, lord skywalker wrote:

bath always comes up like a road during summer months

Not sure if its still the case but Bath used to be unique among British racecourses in that it had no artifical watering system .

that is correct

3 Aug 1999 was officially Hard at Bath (I only remember it because I owned a winner on the card).

No watering system up on the top of Lansdown Hill.

Re The Anorak: it wasn't just 1990. In Sept. 1991 they were again racing on officially hard ground at Devon and Exeter, what seemed like every week.

I attended Bath in the mid 90's and recall that there was a heavy shower on what was officially Firm going . The following race saw 2 of the 4 runners slip up on the bend and as a result a later race was abandoned on safety grounds . Twenty years on and Bath racecourse appear to have taken no steps to remedy this situation as they continue to abandon races after rain on safety grounds .

We have had a similar thread 'recently' ....

I was going to say a few months ago - But, as ever - it was TWO YEARS ago 

Best answers were ...

ged 23 Jul 16 13:19

Bath had 'Hard' going as recently as Sep 2005.
Chucklestone was a horse who seemed to like it there. Won 7 times there over the 2m1f, once when it was Hard, twice when Firm (and once over 1m5f when Firm).


ged 23 Jul 16 13:27

Taunton had hard ground 3/10/1996 for a jumps meeting.

Carlisle had hard ground 21/8/95 for a flat meeting.

They're the most recent instances at other tracks, for the 2 disciplines.

So I take it, it is still an official going in use today?

Not sure a watering system is feasible at Bath. Would there actually be enough water pressure at the top of Lansdown Hill for a pumping system to be viable?

Happy if anyone has evidence I'm wrong on that.

technically its still in use but in reality there's not much chance of seeing any meetings run on hard ground due to welfare reasons

barely any meetings are run on firm ground these days (away from bath) let alone hard

This would do the job on Landsdown Hill

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/serbia-asks-russia-for-help-in-combating-wildfires/00-beriev-be-200chs-ampibious-firefighting-aircraft-08-12/