Ascot clerk: 'I have never known it dry up like this in November - it's unique'

Ascot clerk of the course Chris Stickels has expressed sympathy with trainers using ground conditions as a reason for withdrawing horses from Saturday's high-profile card and described the speed at which the track dried out since 41mm of midweek rain as unprecedented.

Constitution Hill was taken out of the Coral Hurdle at midday by trainer Nicky Henderson while Alan King had already scratched last season's Arkle winner Edwardstone from the meeting's £125,000 handicap chase, citing concerns about conditions at the racecourse. 1965 Chase favourite L'Homme Presse joined the exodus shortly after and was one of 15 non-runners, leaving just 30 horses competing in the seven races, one of which was a walkover.

Speaking to the Racing Post on Saturday, King said: "I didn't like the ground yesterday. Betterforeveryone, the horse I ran in the last race there, was jarred up this morning and seeing how sore he was made my decision quite easy.

"I know Chris has put a bit of water on but I couldn't run Edwardstone. We've only had a handful of runners at Ascot this season and most of them have come back with a problem."

Alan King: 'We've only had a handful of runners at Ascot this season and most of them have come back with a problem'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Responding to King's comments, Stickels – who at 11.38am changed the official ground description to good, good to soft in places from good to soft, good in places – said: "Alan called me this morning to explain why he had taken out Edwardstone. What he has said is fact. If a horse finished a bit sore this morning, that horse obviously wanted softer ground. This is the reason people are worried about running horses on ground faster than they want.

"We're also at the beginning of the season, which I think makes a difference. It's awful if people are finding horses are coming back a bit sore because the ground is a bit quicker than they wanted, and I don't want that to happen, but it does happen sometimes. It's a fact."

Stickels added: "As the clerk, I can only do my best for horse welfare by calling the ground what it is. We are describing it as we are so that people know it isn't easy ground – and if they have a horse who wants easy ground they need to be aware of that.

"The track took the rain we had earlier in the week extraordinarily well, which I have to put down to six extremely dry months. We watered last night on an area that I was worried could become good to firm. I promise you that having walked that part of the track it's still good but I'm also very pleased that we watered.

"I didn't expect it to dry out as much as it has after that amount of rain. I've never known it dry up like this in November. It's a unique situation to me and I wasn't expecting the track to soak up the rain to this extent. However, the clerks I'm speaking to are experiencing similar circumstances. It's unprecedented how tracks are absorbing heavy rainfall."

Chris Stickels: 'I didn't expect it to dry out as much as it has after that amount of rain'Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Stickels also insisted that having the hurdles course as a fallback option for Qipco British Champions Day – which this year took place on the main Flat track – had not impacted the preparation of the jumps circuit.

"We were watering through August and September and we wouldn't have the depth of grass we've got had we not done that," said Stickels.

"In order to make a track raceable for either code, you have to apply water to get the soil moist enough to absorb rain. You do have to be careful about overwatering for either code and you also have to be careful about watering until you get to October for jumping as you can end up getting proper soft ground having overwatered and then losing fixtures in December and January because of waterlogging.

"I actually wouldn't have wanted to use the jumps course on Champions Day because it would have been too slippery. It was quick ground underneath at that point, so I would have been concerned about using it."

Addressing the fact three of the first four races took place with a maximum of three runners – the second race later became a walkover – Stickels added: "It's a shame. We had good fields yesterday, which is quite unusual. Today we have smaller fields but with real good quality. Now, there is unfortunately a question mark about what is going to happen but I understand that it's early in the season and people have to make difficult with a long season in front of them, and rightly so."

Ascot director of racing Nick Smith said: "So many non-runners is of course unfortunate all round, especially for sponsors, racegoers and punters watching at home and in the shops. However, we fully understand that many horses declared for today prefer a softer surface.

"The reality is that what tends to happen these days when a star horse is pointed at a high-end jumps pattern race, is that the opposition is sparse and so that creates an uncomfortable void if they don't actually run.

"We're anxious not to make any knee-jerk reactions specifically relating to this one day. It should be remembered that the welcome media narrative earlier in the week was that today was shaping as one of the most exciting cards we have staged over jumps, albeit that small fields were assured even then.

"We have confidence that the outputs from the Quality Jumps Racing Review Group will see some rationalisation at the top-end, as it is plainly obvious most weekends that the programme needs refining."

Read more:

'It's a nightmare' - ground concerns rule out Constitution Hill

Paul Nicholls: 'I've no idea why it was a walkover - Lorcan said the ground was safe'

'Should we even carry on?' - racegoers' day spoilt by walkover and withdrawals

'I feel sorry for the punters' - on-course bookies react to depleted Ascot card (£)

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