Haydock's two-day weekend meeting abandoned after failed inspection

Haydock’s two-day meeting scheduled for Friday and Saturday has been abandoned after the inner track was found to be unsuitable for racing during an inspection on Tuesday.

The course staged a three-day meeting last week, with the first two days taking place without incident on the inner course.

Saturday’s fixture was due to be staged on the outer track but in the first race John and Thady Gosden’s Friendly Soul put her foot in a hole and was lucky not to be brought down, with no further racing taking place on that course.

The three remaining sprint races switched to the inner track but as a result of the volume of racing taking place on that course in recent days, it was decided the two fixtures this week would have to be called off.

A statement posted on social media read: “Fixtures scheduled to take place on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th May have been cancelled following today’s (Tuesday) inspection of the inner course.

“We had hoped to stage this weekend’s fixtures on the inner track after a hole appeared on the outer track during racing last Saturday.

“However, given the three days of racing already staged on the inner track in recent days the ground will not have the chance to recover to an acceptable standard for racing this weekend.

“We are working with the BHA (British Horseracing Authority) around next steps for the rescheduling of Friday and Saturday’s races and the BHA will issue further updates on this in due course.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause to participants and racegoers.

“External drainage specialists and agronomists are on site at Haydock Park today (Tuesday) and investigations continue into the cause of the hole that appeared on the outer track during racing on Saturday 23rd May.”

Speaking before the decision to call the two fixtures off was made, John Gosden felt clerk of the course Dan Cooper’s job would have been made easier if he had access to a map of all the old drains.

Gosden said: “It was very unfortunate, very difficult. I took pictures of the hole, I knew it was at two and a half out and we found it. It was very well disguised, you could walk past it day and night. That’s where she put her foot in. She went in about six inches, but she’s fine.

“In the end, you could literally get your arm in it, and it was silty ground underneath. Obviously, it’s an old drain that’s collapsed.

“I think in fairness to the clerk of the course, I shouldn’t think he was given a proper map, if you like, or a study of where those old drains are, but certainly you could walk past that every day and never suspect it was there.

“The track was in perfect order, but that was like a well-camouflaged trap, if you like.”

He added: “It’s a miracle she was OK, to be honest. Luckily, she was travelling so well, everyone else was coming off the bridle, and he (Oisin Murphy) had a good hold of her. If he was in full stretch and the leg is out, that would have been a very different story. But fortunately, he was sitting with a double handful, and I think that was the key factor.”