The Elwick Thoroughbred track has come to the end of its current racing campaign and as part of the track management plan, the track has been ‘turned out’ for Spring renovations.
Taking into account the maturity of the track and the time of year the track is considered to have a good cover of grass and has performed as expected throughout the past few months.
The renovation is now well underway and initial critical works are expected to be completed by August 20th. The renovation consists of dethatching, aeration, seeding, topdressing and fertilising the track. The renovation commences with a dethatching of the track to remove unwanted layers of organic matter followed by aeration to allow the track profile to ‘breathe’ The aeration also removes a small amount of deep-seated unwanted organic matter significantly assists the turf root system to grow deeply and vigorously.
After the aeration is complete the track will be reseeded to provide new growth to increase the turf density of the track along with increasing the overall turf anchorage. Finally, the application of topdressing material is undertaken to ‘true up’ the surface, to aid drainage further and assist the germination and establishment of the applied seed.
At the conclusion of the renovation, the nutrition inputs will continue as per the program and in line with requirements from recent soil analysis to support the recovery of the track so that it is back to full health ready for the restart to racing.
Two applications of selective herbicide were applied just prior to the last meeting on 8 August to reduce the unwanted Poa annua turf species populations. The herbicide used is taken up through the roots and will continue to take effect as time progresses.
Thoroughbred racing will return at Elwick on Saturday October 16th.