Newbury Sat 11/02- no watering allowed?

A grade one track who received millions for property development doesn’t have a lake in the middle.

23 declared for the Betfair Hurdle but there wont be many that will appreciate quick ground.
prolly cut up before saturday

Jimnast,

There's no lake in the middle because that's a landing strip used by light aircraft on a regular basis, especially by jockeys, trainers, owners etc during the flat season. You may recall an accident there, which if I remember correctly involved Joe Mercer pulling people out of a burning plane. That was about 50 years ago, which shows how long the airstrip has been in use.

But there is a very big lake on the far side of the straight mile between the mile start and the 5F start. It's an old gravel pit. I don't know for sure that Newbury use it as a source for watering, but it seems likely.

Newbury. Wednesday report.
Good The course was covered with frost sheets on Sunday. A few frozen places under the covers but has thawed as temperatures rise during the day. This is expected to be the case through to Friday from when it is forecast to be above 0C overnight into Saturday.


Why would/could you water?

Clerk of the course says 'firm' in the going description is a possibility but he's not exactly nailing his colours to the mast. The covers will stay down due to frost on Thursday.
Course has a borehole from which they extract H2O but they are only licensed to douse the course between March 1st and November.

Firms paying first 5. Could end up a 10 runner race if the worse scenario is realised.

Things will be clearer by Friday no doubt.

Good morning anorak

Thanks for the reply I had not considered the landing strip ,don’t remember the joe mercer incident but  seem to recall an aircraft crashing after racing on a Friday around 30 years ago ,I can’t have been to serious as they raced on the following day.

The one you remember is likely to be the incident at Newmarket, when a plane caught fire on take-off and Ray Cochrane pulled an injured Dettori out of the wreckage. That was in May 2002. Very similar to the one at Newbury which I've found happened in 1972 - in both accidents the pilot was killed, but no passengers.

No I remember that one very well how could you not with frankie involved,this was a pretty minor incident on a Friday.

18 declared for the BF hurdle thus far.
Nicholls hoss dropped a leg @15 - doubt it runs.

Hacker Des Places N/R
quelle surprise

Good to firm in February. Sign of the times?

Clerk o't' course speculated ground could ride dead. He's on drugs -looks like a road oot there

First race Winning time: 5m 46.10s (fast by 1.90s)

course record 5m:43s

Far too quick for many you'd speculate?

That's surprisingly quick considering it was a match from someway out.

Yep; 5 seconds quicker than Bravemansgame last year on good to soft

Zanza
7 ran Off time: 2:25:48 Winning time: 5m 34.50s (fast by 13.50s)

ATR has the course record as 5:43.00-2m 7f 86y-

Zanza is a real enigma. He is a 130 horse anywhere but Newbury.

Tomorrow [19/02/23] currently good to firm on both chase and hurdles courses

write-off really

most valuable races take place first and second on the card and attract just 2 and 3 runners.

They really need to sort out the mess that exists with the restriction in place that prevents some artificial rain jobby.


How much would you pay to attend tomorrow?


No wonder that BHA bod says the sport is in decline.

No horses tried putting my pot on is it walk over in the first come racing .. or not.

the going when declared on friday is the same as it is today good to firm,  N Henderson pulls out more runners than any other jumps trainer without a valid reason.

Absolute disgrace that one of the best courses in UK has been allowed to sink to this. No doubt somebody wants to sell it all for building.

Please ask Henderson what he thinks about his local course.

I don't think it's the course officials' fault entirely because the environmental agency will only license the course to water between march and November.
You could argue that with the climate change factor they might have petitioned for an extension to the licence.

At least they are showing the man utd v leicester game at 2pm. Has to be more entertaining than the crap you'll find when you purchase the racecard.

Which seems totally illogical when water is only likely to be short in the summer. If Newbury were serious about sorting it out they would have a reservoir like many other courses do.

They have a water source they just can't use it. not the only course in the country with such a restriction either.