'I've never seen anything like it' - Britain bracing itself for fifth summer heatwave as Jockey Club official issues warning

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The Jockey Club's head of operations in Lambourn has warned that another heatwave could significantly impact jumps horses returning from their summer breaks.

Britain is once again bracing itself for soaring temperatures this week, with a fifth heatwave expected and parts of the country set to reach 36C on Thursday.

Temperatures in Lambourn are forecast to sit between the late 20s and mid-30s for the majority of the week, and the Jockey Club's Will Riggall has stressed the need for rain in the near future.

Riggall said: "We're lucky we have the all-weather gallops as trainers can work horses as normal on those, but we've not used the grass gallops for weeks now. These hotter and more prolonged summers are something we're going to have to get used to.

"The grass will come back, I've no concerns about that, and the rain will come eventually, but it's tough for everybody. We'd want it to break sooner rather than later, as I've never seen the ground this brown so far into August."

The majority of jumps horses in Lambourn are now back in training for the core season, but Riggall believes preparations for the campaign may have to be altered because of the drying ground.

He said: "It will have a knock-on effect in the autumn, when the jumpers want to get on the grass gallops. I don't think you'll see the likes of Nicky [Henderson] on the Faringdon Road gallops or Jamie [Snowden] on our grass gallops until possibly November and into December. 

"We're going to need so much rain between now and then, and that's my concern now."

Riggall feels that some courses in Britain could also suffer with the ongoing high temperatures.

He said: "No doubt there will be a backlog of jumping in October, when winter jumps tracks will take a long time to come to hand. There could even be early-season abandonments if grass growth hasn't returned until well into the autumn."

Grade 1-winning trainer Snowden said: "We've not changed our plans because of the drying ground, but it means we'll need to be a bit more patient in the horses' build-up work before we start any quicker work.

"I'm conscious it's going to take a lot of rain to get into the winter tracks. You can see on the TV what some of them are like. I'm sure it will come, but it needs to."

The prolonged hot weather has had a significant impact on Britain's racecoursesCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Outlook for the week

Thursday is expected to mark the peak of the latest heatwave, with temperatures in some parts of southern England forecast to reach 36C, but no changes are expected to the schedules at Beverley and Salisbury, which are due to race on both Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. 

Salisbury, which cancelled its meeting on June 24 following an extreme heat warning issued by the Met Office, will introduce several measures to help keep horses cool.

“We'll be putting in our usual hot weather race meeting precautionary preparations,” said clerk of the course Jeremy Martin. 

“We’ll have the cooling off areas down in the stable yard, where we have two big fans. We have plenty of hydro areas to cool off around the parade ring, pre-parade and for when the horses come off the course and around the course.

“I haven't had any discussions with the BHA. They would usually make contact if they wanted to. So for now we're carrying on as planned.”

There is evening racing at Kempton on Wednesday, but it is the solar eclipse, rather than the heatwave, which has led to a change from the norm at this time of year.

Clerk of the course Barney Clifford said: “We'll have the floodlights on due to the eclipse, but everything else is as per normal at the moment.”

Read these next:

Multiple heatwaves cause partial closure of Newmarket's crucial watered gallop facility 

Rare red weather warning sees four Wednesday fixtures cancelled - with BHA to assess other meetings 'on a case-by-case basis' 

Bath confident of avoiding fixture disruption despite third heatwave of summer and no rain since July 1 

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