All around the country, managers and clerks of National Hunt tracks are poring over long range weather forecasts, and praying to their Gods for rain from above. After the most severe drought since 1976, ground conditions are far removed from the standard required to release autumn and winter quality horses to play. The variable weather is one reason why Fakenham’s season starts later than many.
The Met Office announced in August that three quarters of the UK was in drought as restrictions on water use were applied to 27m residents across the country. Areas officially in drought include East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Kent and East Sussex, Solent and the South Downs, East Anglia, Hertfordshire and London, Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands, and Wessex (covering Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and south Gloucestershire). Whilst rainfall has arrived in September, we are in far from normal conditions.
The implications for jump racing are quite stark. Albeit that irrigation for commercial premises which include racecourses remains permitted, even in areas of drought, retaining moisture in the ground has proved a challenge through no less than five heatwaves and across 10 weeks. Whilst the turf may be green and in good health on most courses, ground conditions are too quick for all but horses that love to hear their hooves rattle.
In the circumstances, staff at Summer jumps tracks have done sterling work in delivering safe fast ground all summer, as reflected in Stratford’s most recent fixture, which included a “Thank you to our hard-working groundstaff Handicap Chase”. But equally, the dry spell is compromising trainers and owners wishing to school – generally on grass – and finish their horses’ prep on the surface they’ll run on. It’s a fact that some horses will not let themselves down fully on artificial surfaces. Trainers are also voting with their feet: small fields at early autumn fixtures at Plumpton, Warwick and Fontwell tell a tale of horses being held back.
Forty years ago, August was punctuated by summer fixtures at Newton Abbot and Exeter, with small fields on hard ground. But public scrutiny of the sport is more searching than in the pre-internet era; Hard ground is an automatic disqualifier of any fixture under the rules of racing, whilst horse welfare is right at the top of every venue’s criteria for protecting the sport’s reputation and social licence.
That social licence manifests itself often through horserace betting sites, which, whilst indispensable to the financial wellbeing of the sport in encouraging wagering, can also be a source of misinformed comment.
In fact, sustainability for the sport at every level is at the heart of Racing Resilient: an environmental strategy for British racing, published 11 months ago by the BHA, which includes a water & resources impact assessment as a stage one precursor to an evidence-based action plan rolled out between 2027-30.
So what may happen if the dry spell extends into the autumn?
The most likely outcome is a transfer of fixtures from those venues unable to recoup their ground to a satisfactory level to those that can. The summer tracks with sound watering systems, and racecourses in the north, and in Scotland, where drought has not been so acute, look in pole position, but even amongst these, appetite to take on more runners stands to compromise their own quality of presentation if taken to excess. Newbury’s opening fixture is planned to be an all-hurdle card, held on the watered flat track, by way of example.
Without significant rainfall, races like Cheltenham’s cross country in November are odds-on to be deferred, but the loss of a single race need not turn into a crisis. Wholesale movement of the fixture list is highly disruptive, difficult practically, and impinges on existing programmes if locations are hundreds of miles apart. The West Country, as a hotbed of racing excellence, could be badly inconvenienced. Fakenham is in no immediate danger of compromising the season’s start, we should add.
And what of the longer term if this is to become the norm? To put this in context, the winter of 2023 forced the abandonment of the highest ever number of mid-winter fixtures through waterlogging, so the overall volume of water isn’t necessarily the issue; rather the irregularity of rainfall.
The sport has been struggling to maintain field sizes for the whole of 2026, and this extends to both codes of the sport. A little over 43% of races this year have failed to reach each-way betting to three places. Amongst these, particular genres of race, like intermediate and novice chases are regular culprits. There is little point in a 3 runner novice chase, which teaches its participants little about the rough and tumble of a race. Surely it would be better to reduce the quantity of options to grow field size? Small fields do little for the levy and racecourses incur reduced media payments for races under 8 runners.
The number of Jumps fixtures has remained broadly static these past few years as flat racing has increased in volume, but this increase also impinges on field sizes, as animals that would otherwise have gone hurdling now remain in training on the winter all-weather programme.
Matching supply to demand is a thorny problem right at the top of the Inbox for new BHA Chair, Simon Cox.
Content provided by Peter McNeile
