Scott Dixon hails mammoth effort to move 40 horses from flooded Southwell yard after Storm Babet

Scott Dixon has hailed the "legendary" effort of his team and Southwell's staff in evacuating all of his horses from his training yard at the track due to flooding caused by Storm Babet.

Southwell was flooded on Saturday and Dixon had to move 40 horses in a race against time to beat the rising water. They have been re-stabled at the trainer's facility at Wolverhampton.

Dixon, speaking on Sunday, said: "First and foremost, all of the horses are fine and so are the staff. All of my horses who were here have now been moved to the other yard at Wolverhampton, where remarkably there were enough stables to the letter. It was the perfect switch to get every single horse relocated, and all that matters is everybody is safe and sound. 

"Everybody pulled together. The water rose so quickly and we had to sort out the logistics as best we could. The floods meant roads in the area became hard to navigate, and it presented problems for people getting transport in and out."

Dixon aims to assess what damage has been caused by Storm Babet over the next couple of days, before the clean-up process and getting horses back into the yard begins.

He said: "We've lost a bit of stock, but it is what it is and it's likely the water levels will be significantly lower by the end of today, and hopefully we'll be clear then. Then we'll have some cleaning up to do to get the show on the road again.

"I stayed with the horses until all of them were out and I have to say my staff, as well as the racecourse staff and local people, were legendary. I'd also like to thank Elle and Louis Godber, who run a showjumping and livery yard half a mile away from us and helped out by taking our first ten horses before we could move them, as well Andrew Saywell, Gemma Smith and countless people for helping us."

Storm Babet brought heavy rain across Britain last week and impacted meetings Credit: Edward Whitaker

Southwell, whose meeting on Monday was cancelled, has been closed for a significant period of time twice in the last 16 years due to flooding caused by the adjacent River Greet overflowing. It was shut for five months in 2007, and three months in 2012-2013.

Southwell is scheduled to race on Thursday, but the site needs to be assessed first. 

Dixon, who has had 108 wnners at the track, said: "I've no doubt they'll get the show back on the road sooner rather than later, especially with it being Tapeta now rather than Fibresand, as that might have been washed away. For our yard, we'll now hunker down at Wolves, where everyone is, and make a plan soon."

Storm Babet caused havoc to British meetings at the end of last week, and Pontefract's fixture on Monday was also cancelled due to waterlogging.

Read these next:

Floods sink Southwell and Worcester as Storm Babet puts both courses under water 

Pontefract becomes latest victim of Storm Babet as Monday's card cancelled due to waterlogging

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