7/31/2019 England 2012 - The Turf Beneath

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England 2012: The Turf Beneath

Newmarket

The city that eats, sleeps, and breathes Thoroughbreds (the

horses even have their own sidewalks)

A historic centre of thoroughbred racing, training, sales, and

breeding

The "Gallops" are large tracks of well-managed turf, used on

rotation by the trainers to gallop their horses

2400 acres of land owned by the Jockey Club for this training,

includes paths of sand and synthetic fibre to connect training

hards to gallop tracks around and through Newmarket

Jockey Club Gallops

In most places, the turf is hundreds of years old and very denseTypical maintenance is harrowing and rolling after use (to replace

or compress divots), mowing and sometimes topdressing with

chopped peat to build organic matter

Natural Fitness Promotion

Pasture has a sand and synthetic path around the perimeter

Water and hay supplied at intervals along path

Encourages walking

Salisbury RacecourseDivots are replaced between races by hand

Dartmoor

Lots of black vegetation that is actually burned gorse, a brush

that has taken over

The horses actually like the taste of the burned gorse

Fences are old and poor

Wild horses breed freely and overgraze the grasses