Why Goodwood racecourse bosses have had enough of the rain... 738mm to be precise

It’s just under ten weeks until their season opener on Saturday, May 2, but the extremely wet winter has hindered the work they can do on the racing surface.

The first fixture heralds a season of 19 meetings which will include Glorious Goodwood as its centrepiece, with the three-day May and August festivals and Three Friday Nights other highlights.

Clerk of the course Ed Arkell revealed there’d been 738mm (29 inches) of rainfall at Goodwood since the start of September 2019 up to last week – compared to 420mm (16 inches) from September 2018 to February 2019.

He said: “It’s been a challenging winter weather-wise. We’ve obviously had a lot of rain but on the plus side it’s been really mild so that’s really helped the grass come back.

“We did some quite serious renovation works on the grass once we’d finished racing at the end of last season.

“We cut it down hard and scarified it then over-seeded it with about a ton of grass seed.

“It’s come back really well and the seed has germinated.

“We’d like to see cold weather at some point to kill the bugs and beasties. A bit of dry weather would be great.

“Given the chance we’d put a machine on the track and cut it, but we just can’t get anything on it at the moment.”

Goodwood managing director of sport Adam Waterworth said it had been a frustrating time for sport everywhere.

“We need the weather to start playing ball but that’s the same with all sports and all venues,” he said. “You either want a good cold spell to dry things out and give us a proper winter, or let’s just get on with spring, as what we’ve had is no good for anyone. We’re hoping for a great season helped by fine weather.”

STEVE BONE