'I've never seen anything like it' - huge effort as Wincanton beats Storm Eunice

Rails were plucked out of the ground, a tree blocked part of the track and fences were torn down, but the staff at Wincanton were determined not to be beaten by the carnage left by Storm Eunice and extraordinarily managed to avoid an abandonment for Saturday's Kingwell Hurdle fixture.

The chaos began at around noon on Friday when gales, which were beyond measurable on Wincanton's anemometer, forced a power outage. Meanwhile, the storm was wreaking havoc out on the track, with a tree coming down and covering the track in the back straight and two fences being destroyed.

In the height of the storm, running rails were swooped out of the ground and cars parked on the nearby grass veered in the wind.

An inspection was called at 7.30am on Saturday morning with a herculean effort required from the staff to fix rails and remove debris, while a late call-out for a tree surgeon had to go smoothly.

The team, led by clerk Daniel Cooper, started at around 6am and by 7.20am were able to confirm the meeting would take place with no additional damage reported overnight. By 9.30am the track was fully restored for racing, with the only omission the third-last fence which was destroyed due to the storm damage.

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Cooper said: "Luckily we were able to call the inspection a little earlier on the basis that the forecast hadn't deteriorated and the wind wasn't with us this morning. There wasn't any more damage either.

"We had a plan in place to get more people to support us, fixing the wings, rails and damages. In terms of the tree, the surgeon was on time and pulled it away fine – he just moved it out of the way.

"Funnily enough, by about 9.30am we were in a raceable place, which is usually where we expect to be. It's down to more people being there to help us out."

South-west England was one of the areas worst hit by the storm on Friday. A video went viral on Friday night of a church spire in Wells, 20 miles north-west of Wincanton, being blown off in the wind. The Met Office estimates wind speeds in the region to have reached 72mph.

More of the damage caused by Friday's stormCredit: Dan Cooper

"We weren't doing too much outdoor work yesterday, we pulled everyone inside," Cooper explained. "We lost power, then it was the rails and wings which were the first to suffer then the benches, bins, big matting and branding were being blown around. It was certainly a frustration the day before racing.

"It was a good two-hour period of severe gusts, I've never seen anything like it at Wincanton although we've had similar at Exeter. The head groundsman said it was the worst he's seen in his double-figure tenure here.

"We haven't got a good enough system to record the wind speed, ours goes up to about 50mph but it was maxed out for the whole day. That doesn't happen much."

Conditions are currently wet and windy at the track but that will not deter from a quality day's racing – with the clash between Goshen and Adagio in the Matchbook Betting Exchange Kingwell Hurdle (3.20) the highlight.

He added: "This morning is a bit blustery and windy but we're National Hunt racing, we come to expect this and we won't shy away from a blustery day."

Wincanton racecard

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