The Going: By Royal Appointment

From the Royal Procession to the Gold Cup, Ascot Racecourse’s Chris Stickels and Reon Sanford are tasked with preparing a surface fit for human and equine royalty.

The jewel in the crown: Royal Ascot is the pinnacle of Ascot’s fantastic racing calendar with 12 months of preparation from the grounds team (image courtesy of Ascot Racecourse)

Q: How does the magnitude of Royal Ascot affect annual ground preparation?

Ground management and preparation is an ongoing process. Our whole year revolves around Royal Ascot and ensuring that we can provide the best possible racing surface for those five days.

We start planning for the next Royal Ascot as soon as the previous one is over, looking at what went well and what we can do differently next year to improve.

Q: With Royal Ascot beginning so soon after racing’s restart, what were the added pressures on the team?

When the Covid-19 protocols initially came in it was essential personnel on site only, and some of the team were put on furlough.

It was, and is, a challenging period for the team. In terms of day to day operations we can no longer share vehicles to travel around the site, we’re regularly cleaning and disinfecting the equipment, and social distancing protocols sometimes make operations such as moving a rail a little tricky than usual.

When racing resumed behind-closed-doors our first fixture was Royal Ascot. In the build up to this we started a phased reintroduction of groundstaff through May and we were back to full strength by June to ensure we could provide an optimum racing surface.

Q: Being able to host the Royal Meeting in the face of such adversity must have been a real boost for the team.

Seeing Royal Ascot go ahead was hugely rewarding given that we’d had to prepare for the Festival with fewer staff and had faced challenging weather conditions.

It was also fantastic to see the team stay safe from Covid and return to work from furlough. It was tough for those we had to put on furlough at the start of the pandemic so to see them return to the site was a very satisfying moment.

Away from racing the grounds team were involved in our company volunteering programme facilitated by Ascot Racecourse Supports. Since the pandemic started we have helped out our local Beavers and Scouts group, landscaping their site, planting wildflowers and maintaining trees.

Crossing the Royal Ascot finish line in front is the dream of many jockeys, trainers and owners. The responsibility to produce the surface for this to happen falls to Chris, Reon and the grounds team (image courtesy of Ascot Racecourse)

Q: What are the unique characteristics of Ascot Racecourse that perhaps many people won’t be aware of?

The straight course at Ascot was redeveloped in 2005 to incorporate a high-tech drainage system.

This section of the course has a higher sand content than the round course and so drains slightly better, therefore one of the challenges we face is marrying up these two sections to provide one, consistent racing surface.

For Royal Ascot the team need to prepare the whole site, and not just the racecourse, to welcome 300,000 or more patrons across the five-day Festival.

This means investing a lot of time into the lawns and gardens to ensure that they are perfect come the Royal Meeting.

Q: #Groundsweek2021 is all about celebrating groundsmanship and encouraging more to take up the profession. In your opinion, what is the best part of being groundstaff?

There is a strong sense of camaraderie amongst our groundstaff team, and this is something that we’re continuously trying to build on. It is rewarding to see your hard work unfold in front of you and to be a part of longer-term development projects.

It is also good to see the returns from using new techniques and innovations.

Learn as much as you can from your colleagues and don’t be afraid to ask questions. There’s always a solution to a problem, and it will often provide an opportunity for everyone to learn.

Always be prepared to adapt, you’ll never stop learning throughout your career and it’s important to not get stuck in your ways.

Chris, Reon and the Ascot grounds team enjoy a strong sense of camaraderie which is vital to their outstanding work (image courtesy of Pitchcare)

Tomorrow’s The Going features the RCA’s Holly Cook discussing the ever-popular RCA Turf Management Seminars. The full set of racecourse interviews will be available to view at the end of the week.