'I've never had as few as four' - Salisbury has 87 runners for two-day meeting

Salisbury's marquee August fixture is the latest to be hit by small field sizes, with just 87 runners set to line up over the two days.

Wednesday's card, headlined by the Listed British Stallion Studs EBF Upavon Fillies' Stakes, has just 44 runners and Thursday's Group 3 action has drawn 43.

A lack of rain and a looming heatwave have exacerbated the problem of poor field sizes and Salisbury's clerk of the course Jeremy Martin has been battling to keep the track at its current going description.

"We're watering away to maintain good to firm ground," he said. "We're watering today and will be watering again after racing tomorrow."

Just seven and four runners have been declared for the Upavon (Wednesday, 3.30) and Sovereign Stakes (Thursday, 4.15) respectively but the ultimate result was no surprise to Martin.

He said: "Naturally, I'm disappointed there aren't a few more runners, but it was half expected based on the entries which were significantly less than this meeting usually would be.

"There's been a lot of talk about field sizes this year, but it's also been compounded by the lack of rain that much of the country has had, particularly the south of England.

"We've had very little rain in the last three weeks – 3mm to be precise – and that isn't helping.

Jeremy Martin: 'I'm disappointed there aren't a few more runners'Credit: Edward Whitaker

"Of course we're disappointed, but the four in the Sovereign Stakes are nice horses, all proper Group 3 horses. Seven would be an average for the Sovereign and it had ten last year, which is as good as it has been for a number of years, but I've never had as few as four."

The temperature is forecast to reach 31C at the course on Wednesday and 33C on Thursday, when an amber warning of extreme heat has been issued for most of southern Britain.

Attendances have been another hot topic and Salisbury has also suffered, but Martin is hopeful for a great day of racing.

"We've sold about 1,500 each day, but generally crowds have been down at Salisbury this year, like a number of places," he said.

"We had a couple of good Saturday nights in July, which very much held their own, but the midweek afternoons have been on average 20 per cent down on pre-Covid times."

Salisbury's smaller crowds are a reflection of attendances at race meetings throughout Britain, which fell by 17.6 per cent on average in the first six months of the year compared with 2019.

It has been a dramatic year of hot weather for Britain, with several records broken in July, and Martin is hopeful of a break in conditions for Salisbury to finish the season strongly.

He added: "Hopefully, a summer like this won't be repeated for a few years, but I'm hoping with the remaining four race meetings things cool down a bit and the rain comes back so we can have a better end to the season.

"It's not great, but we're racing and sometimes small fields can provide cracking races – and the favourites don't always win.

"It's challenging times in more ways than one, for us all, but Salisbury has been racing for 438 years. Whether it'll be racing in another 438, who knows, but we'll still be going for many more years."

Only two of the seven races for the second Racing League meeting at Lingfield on Thursday will have a full field of 14 runners. Two races in the team competition have only eight runners.

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