The Going: The World’s Best Race

This week it’s #GroundsWeek, an initiative launched by the Grounds Management Association (GMA) to celebrate all things ground staff and to encourage new people to enter the industry.

To mark #GroundsWeek The RCA have created The Going, a series of interviews with racecourse grounds teams that will be released throughout the week. The Going approaches the art of groundsmanship from different angles and explores how various people entered the profession, their inspirations and proudest moments. 

We start by talking to Adrian Kay, Head Groundsman at York Racecourse. 2020 saw York Racecourse’s Juddmonte International reclaim its crown as the world’s best flat race. In this edition of The Going Adrian details how the famous Knavesmire turf is prepared for this prestigious race as part of the annual Ebor Festival and York’s seven other high-quality meetings.

From the turf up: the world’s best horses grace York Racecourse each year including 2x Coolmore Nunthorpe winner Battaash (image courtesy of York Racecourse)

Q: How do you set about preparing such an iconic surface as the Knavesmire?

We are honoured to attract some of the best horses in the world, in particular to the Dante and the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festivals.

For all racedays we strive to achieve the best possible ground conditions we can. In essence our Festival preparation and ground is similar to any other raceday at York.

No two racedays are the same at York, with each one creating its own challenges; ranging from weather conditions, the number & distance of races right through to the varying use of the grassed areas, such as music events and fashion lawns.

Our raceday preparation is really a programme of year-round maintenance. From experience we know that this will then reduce the amount of remedial work needed as we get closer to the racing season and in between racedays.

Q: What are the unique elements of the racecourse you’re faced with?

Like some other racecourses, the Knavesmire is an open space and the land here at York is accessible to the public 365 days of the year—we welcome dog walkers, joggers, walkers, cyclists and at the moment people on their daily exercise.

A few years ago we estimated that around 5,000 people used our service road a week, and as you can imagine with these numbers we have to carefully control and maintain crossing points on the track. It is a challenge when we are maintaining a high-quality sports surface!

Well known by many, the racecourse is also a flood plain. Not only is the indigenous soil far from ideal for horse racing but when the River Ouse levels rise, they over flow onto the Knavesmire and parts of the racing surface – which is currently the case this week at York as I write!

This can occur at numerous times a year and obviously brings a completely different challenge to the team.

Q: Are there any other venues that inspire you to continue to learn when it comes to turf?

I’m always keen to meet other groundstaff from all sports, sharing knowledge and the challenges and frustrations that they experience. Then you realise you are not alone.

You must respect and appreciate what volunteer groundstaff do every day, without any sort of budget or payment. They go out in all weathers and carry out thankless tasks for no or very little reward.

Q: How has the team at York adapted to working through a pandemic?

We are a close team at York, so whilst we have been unable to celebrate at the end of racedays like we used to it has been good to be able to still work as a team outside.

Although racing hasn’t been the same for the 2020 season, to be able to still work together to put on racedays behind closed doors has meant some routine has been maintained in our daily lives which has been valuable to us all.

Changing our day to day maintenance operations to comply with social distancing, while carrying out rail movement and track repairs have been tricky challenges to navigate. Life-long habits had to be reviewed and adapted very quickly.

We also had to adapt areas for new uses, especially looking at how we could accommodate media and television safely in our areas for the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival. Our Head Gardener, Zac, worked with our team to create an amazing fairly last minute floral presentation zone to meet the needs of the ITV team over the four days.

To continue to race in the summer and autumn of 2020 and deliver such a highly regarded Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival was hugely  rewarding. Despite the pandemic we were able to welcome the best horses in the world to a track we had worked hard to deliver in such an unprecedented time. To know that our course held the best race in the world and welcomed the best racehorse in the world, is a testament to the hard work of all.

The floral presentation for ITV Racing provided a memorable backdrop for viewers (image courtesy of York Racecourse)

Q: Given its stature in the local community and the city of York, how else did the racecourse support patrons over the past year?

Right at the start of pandemic we were in the midst of our season preparations. Whilst retail chains were left with a surplus of clothes, pubs with a surplus of beer – we had 15,000 pansies ready to come into bloom for the Dante Festival.

As a result we offered our local community the chance to collect these free on their daily walk – and with a socially distanced queue each morning we had empty greenhouses after the fourth morning.

At a time when we knew we would be unable to welcome people racing it was nice to read the social media messages and emails about how we had brightened gardens, care homes and doorsteps.

Our service road has also been a valuable asset to the community throughout this year, with our team maintaining this throughout and welcoming people on socially distanced exercise. We now have a coffee van at the racecourse which is also proving very popular!

Q: In your opinion, what is the best part of leading a grounds team?

The day to day maintenance on the racecourse, always varied and keeps you on your toes.

I also enjoy working with the different elements of the weather and the challenge of attempting to stay one step ahead of it!

I’d encourage anyone looking to become a grounds person to look for practical, hands-on experience and learn the technical element of the industry as you progress. There are now pathways pretty much set out for anyone coming into grounds management which is welcome progress.

Tomorrow’s The Going features Plumpton Racecourse. The full set of racecourse interviews will be available to view at the end of the week.