Heat Challenges British Fixtures

[Wandering Eyes]

Extreme heat in Britain, and across Europe, presented challenges to Thursday’s racing fixtures, with Southwell eventually making the decision to abandon the last two races of its jumps card. Meetings at Sandown, Yarmouth, Newbury and Doncaster on the flat went off as planned and without a hitch.

Southwell had already moved the start of the card forward to 11:25 a.m., with a scheduled completion of 2:30 p.m. in an effort to dodge the hottest part of the day, but acting clerk of the course Charlie Moore said that after 1:30 p.m. the decision to abandon was unanimous.

“The last temperature reading we took, which was at the end of race five, was 34.6C and it had effectively gone up a degree a race,” Moore said. “There was no-one eager to go on in the conditions.

“We had six vets here, four of our own and two of the British Horseracing Authority, and we were all aware it was getting hotter and it was decided to hold an inquiry into the situation. At that inquiry there was no-one voting against the facts.”

Sandown’s Clerk of the Course Andrew Cooper pointed out that jumps racing is dealing with more challenging circumstances.

“We are not racing beyond a mile-six–Southwell started at two miles and it has very different demands on the horse,” he said. “In terms of our situation here, it wasn’t raised [bringing the meeting forward] as a Flat race meeting as a necessary scenario.”

Midway through the day, Cooper said, “We have four veterinary surgeons on duty and a lot of experts of handling the Thoroughbred racehorse in terms of what you might call extreme temperature. They seem comfortable with arrangements in place and how horses are handling things. No concerns have been raised by any professional partner–no trainer, no jockey and none of the experienced veterinary team.”

“For all racing, the key thing seems to be having access to cold water as soon as you can in terms of the post-race handling of the horses,” he added. “We have enhanced volumes and accessibility to water. We’ve also got mobile water on vehicles of our own and if there is an incident anywhere, we can get water to the horse.”

Trainer Mark Johnston, who is also a veterinarian, had runners at Sandown on Thursday and he said, “We take more precautions than most on a normally hot day. We put these wet sheets on them and we’ve always done that.

“We take precautions when we are travelling, which would be far more of a concern to me than on a racecourse. We give them a bit extra water and make sure we throw plenty of water over them.”

Frankie Dettori said, “It is the highest temperature I’ve ever ridden in England without a doubt.”

“It’s hot,” he added. “We can cope with this though, it is the poor horses that have to run.”

“It is hard for us and hard for the horses, but it is one of those things,” said jockey Andrea Atzeni. “I’m lucky I don’t have to waste, but there are jockeys in there that have to be careful with their weight. It is probably not ideal, but we have to get on with it.

“Everything that has been put in place to cope with it seems to be fine. We are still racing as hard as we would normally be, with the difference just it being warmer than usual.”

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