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Andrew Scutts: Newcastle's all-weather transformation should be line in the sand
Northumberland Plate day feels an appropriate time to make this plea: let what happened at Newcastle be the last time a turf track is sacrificed at the altar of the artificial.
All-weather racing absolutely has its place. Midsummer probably isn't it, but we'll gloss over that. It provides focus and narrative while the turf is in winter hibernation and sustains many livelihoods, especially those towards the bottom of racing's pyramid.
But there comes a point when enough is enough and, in shaping the 2020 fixture list, the BHA indicated they felt we'd reached it The Japanese knotweed of British racing was pruned, with the number of all-weather fixtures falling to 342 from 351, and its percentage of the overall total to 23.09 from 23.20.
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