Newton Abbot waterlogged after 5mm rain, because Clerk of Cse over watered last week

Very frustrating. The way it is these days aiming for safe ground. Probably would have been a lot of NR had they raced. Feel sorry for those who have travelled.

Should we have National Hunt racing in June, July & August?

Perhaps ok up in Perth, not in Devon.

Just read sparrows comments on another thread.

No surprise if that is correct.

How many mm before the rain ?

No jump racing from The Derby until August Bank Holiday. imo

But they can't race there in winter either due to waterlogging so are you suggesting they close it completely?

Afternoon Formoftheace, I dont know, but the weather reports have it down as light rain for 3hrs light rain 3 days ago.


Afternoon dambuster, you could well be right with that comment.


Afternoon sageform, no, Im not suggesting they shut it.   Far from it in fact.

 
But the clerk must have really overwatered for it to only be able to take 5mms of rain. And there lies the problem. 
Clerk of courses should not be playing God with the watering to the extent that any natural rain causes it to be unraceable.


I love NH, but maybe the olden ways were best and there for a reason - such as closing the NH season for a summer break. 

Maybe the words "Summer" and "Jumping" aren't meant to be used in the same sentence.  Not for me to say, but maybe that is a topic for debate on another day.

Do you know for sure that the track was watered? Because I was there for the meeting ten days ago, and got drenched. It rained incessantly. And this after a winter that left the track waterlogged in places no one there had ever seen waterlogged before. Months of persistent rainfall would be enough to explain why a racecourse in a valley where the River Lemon flows into the Teign would be vulnerable to this morning's additional rain.

The ground was already soft,heavy in places so long odds against any watering last week as the OP claims, more likely as Screaming has explained.

The race and fixture will not go ahead after a yellow weather warning brought with it heavy rainfall, leaving a false area of ground at the winning line and leaving course officials with no options but to call off proceedings.

How times change. I remember when hard ground was usual at this time of the year at Southern meetings.
They don't race on hard ground now.

Crippen is half right. The ground was hard at the southern meetings,for the most part. But they didn't race from halfway through June till the end of July.
Watering has basically made summer jumping more popular with trainers ( my memory is of very small fields through August ). I'm all in favour. I'm off to Uttoxeter on Wed having already been there once and Market Rasen twice recently.

You had hard ground at places like Devon & Exeter and Plumpton in August, but those courses no longer have fixtures in August, which solved the problem.