Salisbury pushed back to Thursday evening due to heat

With the mercury set to rise on Thursday, Salisbury’s scheduled afternoon fixture has been pushed back to the evening to avoid racing when temperatures are at their highest.

In what has been a glorious summer of sun, there has been no let up in the rocketing temperatures as the UK prepares for it’s fifth heatwave of the year.

The latest is set to peak on Thursday and although there are no Met Office weather warnings in place yet, the British Horseracing Authority has agreed to Salisbury’s request to start their card at 5.30pm, instead of 2.30pm, with the racecourse expecting kinder conditions due to the forecast lower temperatures and humidity and also the potential for a cooler sea breeze.

Elsewhere on Thursday the race order at Windsor’s evening meeting has been juggled to ensure the longer races take place in the latter half of the card.

Jumps Handlers Face Fast Ground Concerns

While it is very much business as usual on the Flat side of the industry, trainers in the jumps ranks are having to ponder the possibility of fast ground deep into the autumn, something which could cause headaches as the traditional early-season fixtures come ever closer.

Lambourn is one racing hub home to many National Hunt trainers where the locals are itching for rain, including Nicky Henderson, who having welcomed back into work the majority of his Seven Barrows string, believes some tracks could have a battle on their hands given the current climate.

Henderson said: “We’ve got to make a decision with our horses how far forward we want to get as they’re nearly all back in now and if not here they’re prepping somewhere else.

“All the main protagonists are here and we’re going through our normal routine as we would always do at this time of year getting ready to start as if things are normal.

“But the weather is not normal and some of the racecourses might be getting concerned and the gallops are going to be the same as the racecourses. We use grass a lot and a lot of trainers don’t but we are very lucky we have very good gallops and I like using grass.

“That seems a long way away at the moment though and even though it doesn’t stop us, you have to be thinking the racecourses that stage racing in October when the better racing starts might be getting a little bit worried as normally they would be getting some water on these places which they haven’t been able to do and they are certainly not getting any help from the sky.

“The worry for me is how far forward do you dare go without getting in a situation where you have to pull back and we’re going to have to monitor things quite carefully. At the moment we’re doing as we’d do every year and it doesn’t matter if there is any rain at the moment, but it definitely matters to the racecourses.

“Watching the Shergar Cup, the National Hunt course at Ascot did look sad and they look to have a job on their hands. You can’t help but notice when you are watching the Flat racing, the tracks that also host jumps racing are looking pretty sad, which wouldn’t always be the case at this time of year.

“It might get to the point where we think we best not get too far forward – especially with horses who want cut in the ground.”

Murphy Finds Positives In Summer Sun

While agreeing with Henderson’s concerns, fellow jumps trainer Olly Murphy is taking positives from the summer of sun which has allowed his growing string to thrive ahead of what he hopes will be an exciting winter ahead.

The Warren Chase handler explained: “I haven’t had many runners through the summer and it’s a hard time of year to be running horses and clerks of the course haven’t been given much of a chance, but the majority of the winter horses are back in pre-training for 12 to 14 weeks and have done really well.

“It might seem a long way away given the current weather, but you can guarantee once the rain starts it won’t stop and that’s the way climate change is working at the moment, I imagine we might continue having very hot summers followed by wet winters. We’re looking forward to getting going in the winter.”