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

Dandyman Dan on his way to victory on debut

Bath: ground described as firm for Wednesday's fixtureCredit: Getty Images

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Officials at Bath are optimistic there will be no disruption to its race programme despite the third heatwave of the summer presenting difficult challenges.

Bath does not have a permanent watering system and the ground for Wednesday's fixture is firm, but the track has been using other irrigation techniques to prepare the course.

Field sizes have held up well, with eight runners declared for three of the six races and no contest attracting fewer than five runners.

Clerk of the course Ben Hicks said: "We're very happy with the conversion rate from the entries and people know what to expect at Bath in periods of weather like this.

"The grounds team have been working very hard on overnight shifts applying water with our bowser and rain gun, and we're confident we've got a great covering of grass.

"There are some parts on the wider side of the course that have started to discolour, but we've seen that at many places recently. We're happy with it, but it's a challenging time for everyone, especially when we've not got those permanent irrigation systems."

Bath: has received no rain since its last meeting on July 1Credit: Alan Crowhurst

The track has had no rain since its last meeting on July 1, when the going was firm, good to firm in places, and it is slightly quicker this time.

"We've had plenty of fast ground over the summer and we've called it firm all over," said Hicks. "We only call it what it is and wouldn't say something that it isn't. Honesty is the best policy and if you're open with people, they can make their own judgement about what their horse wants.

"The last significant rain was when we had 6mm on the last day of June and, since then, we've been watering each day."

Bath was forced to move a fixture to Chepstow last summer because of a prolonged dry spell, but Hicks is hopeful of avoiding a repeat with a change in the weather forecast.

"We want rain for post-racing repairs in the next week and, speaking to forecasters, there is some low pressure pushing up from France in the next week to ten days," he said.

"If it got to a point where we couldn't provide a well-recovered surface, we'd look at options we've used previously, such as transferring fixtures, but there is optimism heading into our next fixture on July 31.

"The good thing about the race programme at Bath now is we have a fairly quiet July and August, with two-week breaks between fixtures. We'll continue to monitor it and hopefully this is the worst of it now."

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