The inaugural 'Groundsmans Seminar' that took place at the Curragh racecourse on Tuesday was a resounding success.
The event, organised by the Turf Club, attracted representatives from all racecourses (except Gowran Park- racing on Wednesday) and included virtually every course manager and all clerks of courses.
There was also a large representation from the point-to-pointing field and members of the R.D.S. in Ballsbridge also attended.
The seminar covered all aspects of course management and outlined the varied range of equipment available to facilitate this.
Guest speakers included Christian de Lagarde from France Galop, Richard Linley the Jockey Club Inspector of Course and Simon Claisse the clerk of the course at Cheltenham.
Denis Egan, chief executive of the Turf Club, hopes to make the seminar an annual event and this can only have a positive effect on the quality of racing surfaces at our tracks in future.
One stumbling block for the improvement of tracks remains money and a number of the inovations outlined are well out of reach of the smaller racecourses. A possible solution would be a share scheme for tracks whereby the cost of certain equipment could be spread amongst several tracks.
