Watering a dampener for punters’ hopes in Guineas

When it hasn’t rained for weeks on end it is 100 per cent right that tracks are watered to provide safe ground. The problem is that when watering takes place on a large scale, track biases are inevitable and already this season we have seen that on all the major racedays on the Flat.

First there was obviously a huge pace and draw bias being drawn up the rail at the Craven meeting and, with the Spring Cup dominated by horses drawn low, there had to be some sort of edge being drawn in the middle at Newbury later that week.

Then came Epsom and Sandown, where the times were so slow that the ground was riding much nearer soft than good. At Sandown it was virtually impossible to come from off the pace or up the middle of the course.