Sandblasting

Lingfield's credibility is restored. The new surface is a big hit with trainers, jockeys and the management. Punters, though, are feeling perplexed. This new surface has changed the running style of horses, the extreme draw bias has disappeared, and speed ratings just do not add up.

Arena Leisure, the 'villains' of last year are now the Kings of the sand again. They have implemented a 3 point plan to make Lingfield Park the best all weather course in the UK. The degenerated Equitrack is replaced with a new £3 million Polytrack surface, prize money is boosted quite substantially and the whole course complex is developed into an all year round country park and leisure venue.

£3 million is a lot of money to invest. They could have re-laid with a new layering of Equitrack, or Fibresand as used at Wolverhampton and Southwell (recent refits there only cost £300,000 and £400,000). Arena would not being splashing out millions just for a quick fix for the old broken surface.

Arena want to make Lingfield the Number One all weather track. They want to attract better quality horses, and build up a big following well before the new all weather tracks are built at Fairlop Waters or Newbury.

But in doing this they are going to create 2 tier all weather racing in this country. They will promote Lingfield as the best course for the best horses and keep Southwell and Wolverhampton as 2nd rate courses.

Ian Penrose, Arena's group manager, lets the cat out of the bag when he says "We want to introduce a more focused use of prize money and there is a strong possibility that there will be a distinction between racing at Lingfield and racing at Southwell and Wolverhampton."

Come Racing - All Weather Racing

All weather racing has long been seen as sub standard. Arena are doing all they can to attract the top Southern trainers and owners to Lingfield. By offering a big jump in prize money, using a surface with virtually no kickback, and no apparent draw bias they have answered all the critics gripes about all weather racing.

Poor Prize Money

The prize money is to be boosted by £250,000 from January. Big sponsorship deals such as with Betdirect and their all weather championships will fuel interest. In the past, trainers would not bothered maintaining an active yard during the winter just to pick up a few £2000 races. With more class C and B races on offer it is now worth keeping a few inmates in training during the winter.

Kickback and Injuries

Trainers and owners have never forgotten the first few months of all weather racing back in 1989. Then, the majority or races were hurdle races and many horses were breaking down in the sand. At the time it was debatable as to whether the jarring of the surface was to blame, or the quality of the horses running that counted for the high incidents of lameness. Now with Polytrack jarring fears are allayed. The kickback is virtually non existing too.

unfair draw bias

Some trainers and owners will not run at tracks with strong draw biases. They spend months preparing a horse for a big win only to find, on the big day, a bad draw makes a winning run near impossible.

Last year, it was a gold mine betting in Lingfield low drawn sprints. But the results from this new Polytrack surface are not showing the same trend. To be fair, just 3 meetings and 20 or so races, of which just a few were handicap sprints, can not be conclusive and the track has not had a chance to establish itself and bed in.

Shifting Sands

What is extremely worrying is that the course officials can now create practically any going they desire. With the new Polytrack surface it is possible to work the course such that they can vary the going either side of 'Standard'.

If you look at the recent results at Lingfield you will see that the low drawn front runners are fading badly and that held up horses are running out wide and winning which is the complete opposite of what was happening previously.

One reason for this is that Polytrack offers better grip than Equitrack. It was not easy to accelerate on the Equitrack surface. It was much like trying to run in sand dunes. You will lose traction and take time to get up to speed. This gave front runners a big advantage.