Testing times amid the positives for UK's busiest racecourse

With the release this week of the 2017 fixture list, Lingfield retained its status as the UK’s busiest track, and it remains the only course that operates under all three codes, Flat turf, jumping and all-weather.

The 83 meetings slated for next year, and the 84 allocated for 2016, might be down on recent years, but numbers in both 2013 (106) and 2014 (102) were boosted by meetings it took at short notice from other tracks owing to bad weather, and that ability to step in when others cannot race is something it prides itself upon.

Midweek winter all-weather attendance tends to be on the sparse side, although 400 would be much more typical than the 200 or so that have been recorded at some stand-by meetings, but the numbers swell to anywhere between 5,000 and 9,000 for a themed Saturday night meeting, and they topped 10,000 for the most recent of its three Good Friday All-Weather Championships.