millions of years of climate alteration.

​Since the year dot, and for millions of years before year dot came into existence, the Earth’s climate has altered and changed. It is only a matter of hundreds of years ago the deserts of Africa were not deserts but an expanse of vegetation, with thriving cultures, as evidenced by the many spectacular structures that can be seen when the wind changes direction to expose what lies beneath the sand. There are obvious signs of rain weathering, for instance, on the Sphinx, more evidence that 10,000 years ago the Giza Plateau was not a desert environment. And there is also evidence that the Arctic once was inhabited by animals that could not survive there now, with ancient maps showing an ice-free continent, with forests and flowing rivers.
That is not to suggest the climate is not changing more rapidly now than in the past, with humans helping though not necessarily driving change, proof that the Earth’s weather is forever evolving. In the 1700’s it was expected that during the winter the Thames in places would freeze over, allowing frost festivals to become part of the winter landscape.
And, of course, anecdotally any of us of a certain age can remember summers and winters of our youth that were wetter, colder, snowier and less dramatic than the seasons of today. Though I am minded to recall a passage from Jerome K Jerome’s ‘Three Men In A Boat’ where one of his relatives recalled the idyllic weather of his youth and comparing it to the awful weather he was living through as an old man.
Yes, the weather at present is changing, the summer’s are, on occasion, hotter -is that necessarily a bad thing? – with the winters definitely less snowy, with rainfall less predictable, though, again, for horse racing is that necessarily a bad thing?
But as far as our sport is concerned it must be remembered that our racecourses are equipped with drainage systems that were not present before quite recent times, with racecourses irrigated, except for poor old Bath, whenever clerks of the courses want to remove ‘firm’ from the going conditions. There are also a multitude of more race-meetings in this country than at any time in the sport’s history, with all-weather (a misnomer if ever there was one) racing adding to the overload of meetings and the increasing problem of small-fields, a situation that those debating the latter problem always fail to acknowledge when comparing years gone by and today.
As with covid and vaccination when the media, including, sadly, the Racing Post, were instructed by government to ‘keep to the narrative’ and include no dissent from employees or readers, the narrative around climate change must be adhered to and not challenged. This why the world’s media are not covering the unrest in Sri Lanka, unrest brought about by laws that made it illegal for farmers to use pesticides and fertilisers, leading to wholesale failure of the tea harvest, a turn of events that will affect every tea-drinking country in the world. There are also protests all around Europe, especially Holland, relating to similar climate change legislation that allows governments to sequester farm-land that is farmed using pesticides and fertiliser.
Racecourse must, of course, be managed pro-actively, with more than one eye on the future. Unless Bath racecourse can irrigate through the summer, I cannot see it surviving, unless, and I must admit I have never visited the racecourse, though I know it is on top of a hill, it can become a National Hunt course, to take advantage of nature’s winter abundance of moisture. 
Every racecourse, unless, as with Worcester and Huntingdon, a river runs close by, should have either a reservoir or bole-hole. Racecourses that are flat dominant and are prone to firm ground in summer should race in the Spring and Autumn, with flat turf racing permitted during the winter months. Flexibility is key, I think, with blue-sky thinking and thinking-outside-of-the-box replacing tradition when it comes to the race calendar.
Those criticising the summer jumps programme seem deliberately to ignore the expansion of the race program, with the original construct of summer jumping, that it is to provide income for trainers all-year round, being thrown into the undergrowth. As with the all-weather and flat, there are simply too many jumps meetings in the summer months. Cut the program by a third and the problem is far less of a problem.
There is a saying that ‘you cannot change the weather’, well they can and they do, with cloud seeding a reality for decades and part of the arsenal of war. That, by the way, is fact, not conspiracy theory. We must live with whatever weather nature throws at us. Excessive heat, a real concern when the horse is pivotal, would easily be better managed if, as happens in France, for instance (a country where betting companies have no sway) where they regularly race mid-morning onwards. You might suggest at that time of the day there would be few spectators but if we debating the uncertainty of the future then the proposed Universal Credit System and the take-over of jobs from humans to I.T. and robotics should not ignored; an ugly prospect which, though, will ensure there will be multitude of people in search of something do at all hours of the day, including the morning.
Preparation for the future is key, with experimentation now a matter of emergency as the B.H.A. is notorious for fiddling rather than being pro-active. Alterations to the race program should be instigated as a matter of course, with morning meetings introduced to assess their suitability and viability. Throughout its history, horse racing has lived on the cusp of change. It began with match races between two wealthy people in a challenge to see who had the fastest horse; first in a rural location away from watching eyes, to soon become organised events on heathland, with the public thinking it a great spectacle. Horse racing today is much altered to the middle of the last century, betting has changed, jockey styles have changed, ownership has changed. Horse racing will cope with climate change but only if the sport’s administrators take the possible problems in the future seriously today and plan accordingly.