sunday series and the ground.

​I allowed myself the luxury of laziness yesterday and watched the Sunday Series from Newmarket. It was my first time as I am ambivalent to the concept, unable to accept that money can be found for this project, when in reality, it is a Sunday race-meeting very much like any other Sunday race-meeting. And, yes, I fell asleep for the first hour or more, only rousing as they set-off for the race Mythical Guest won. I am old; I need power-naps after I have done my chores. F.Y.I. I had done the ironing, hoovered, washed-up the dishes, watered what goes for our garden and had lunch. Sleep is good for the soul.
Did I enjoy the waking hours following my much-needed forty-plus winks? Not really. I thought it dragged; the Jockey Cup element is less competitive than an egg and spoon race, with a small money-prize, at least for the mega-wealthy jockeys taking part, no doubt an irrelevance to the successful jockey. On this occasion, the likeable but hardly in need of the money, Will Buick took the prize. I suspect, and hope, he might have donated his little windfall to the charity that helps support his son – Downs Syndrone, is it?
To me, the Sunday Series, the intentions of which are laudable, could do with attaching itself to raising funds for charitable causes, whether it is a home charity like the Injured Jockeys Fund or an equine charity or a charity local to the community of the racecourse where the meeting is being held. By all means angle the sport towards people who would not normally choose to attend a race-meeting, while at the same time supporting a charitable cause.
I hold nothing against the Sunday Series, unlike the spurious nonsense that is the team event – can not even remember what it is called – that Matt Chapman gets overly-excited about, I just thought it a long day, with I.T.V.’s presenters having to work like compares in sparkly suits at an unenthralling local talent show, attempting to whip-up interest and excitement that was as lacking as oxygen at the summit of Everest. 
Charlie Johnson, proving he is chip off the old block, has, apparently, taken-up his father’s cause and has pleaded to have racecourses banned, or persuaded to refrain, from watering during the summer months. Young Johnson is as sensible as his father, with the potential to be both equally outspoken and correct with his opinions. 
There are some trainers who would like to go back to the days when ‘hard’ appeared regularly in going descriptions during the summer and autumn months. Back then, hard ground was raced on mainly due to racecourses having no irrigation systems to provide ease in the ground and to encourage grass growth. We must not go back to those days. Horses regularly suffered tendon damage on hard ground, with only a very few horses advantaged by bone-dry ground and who would rack-up long sequences of wins because of it.
We live in, occasionally, more enlightened times, with racecourse management now pressed by the B.H.A. to provide ‘safe’ ground, with good-to-firm the bottom line, though on a warm, breezy day, good-to-firm at the start of play can easily become firm by the third-race, yet meetings are never abandoned due to firm ground that might become as hard as the road by the final race. What racecourses should be pressed to provide is a deep sward of grass, with watering only allowed for this purpose, to take any sting in the ground. At least for flat racing. National Hunt horses need ground with plenty of ease in it, otherwise modern-day trainers will be absenting their horses on the day in large numbers, with the resulting shame of walkovers and a plunge in betting turnover.
As with the whip, watered ground is about public perception crossed with equine welfare. It is bad look to have horses pulling-up lame, especially after the finishing line when all effort has been expended by both jockey and horse, the whip used to eke-out the very last drop.
Perhaps there is merit is some racecourse being allowed dispensation to provide firm ground on a regular basis, with the proviso that there is a good sward of grass to race on. Whether that would become dangerous on the turns due to the grass becoming slick is another matter but I do think study and research should be conducted on the benefits and downfalls – downfalls, I suspect, being possibly the operative word – of lush grass growth and firm ground.
At the moment firming ground has appeared after a long period of soft-to-heavy ground, with trainers declaring on ground with the word soft in it, whilst on the day a warm sun has dried out the top surface, leaving the dilemma as to whether to risk a horse with a preference for ease in the ground. The cautious trainer will always want to save the horse for another day, though sometimes the less knowledgeable owner will high-handedly insist on running.
As always when a Johnson is involved, Charlie, as with his father before him, has a valid point and though racecourses should be allowed to water, a compromise should be established based on scientific study and research.