Stratford Racecourse Shapes Up Well With Premium Pitch
Set in the Warwickshire countryside, not far from the historic town of Stratford-on-Avon, Stratford Racecourse is one of the country’s leading smaller summer jumps racecourses, hosting 18 fixtures every year.
Premium Pitch was used for both landing and take-off areas at the Stratford course.
Head Groundsman is Eric Harris, who prepares the course for an intense racing schedule that starts early in March and finishes at the end of October. During the year, the racecourse is spiked four times, vertidrained twice and over-seeded once.
At the end of last season, Eric started using Premium Pitch for the first time, for over-seeding and also as part of a divot mix applied when treading the track back in after racing.
Recently introduced by Everris, Premium Pitch is a new blend of perennial ryegrasses that gives both dense cover and the hard-wearing performance demanded by top stadia, sports fields and racecourses. The blend of perennial ryegrass cultivars result in a very deep-rooting grass which creates a cushion-like surface for horses to race over. It establishes and recovers from wear quickly, has excellent tolerance to common turf diseases and offers outstanding visual appeal, making it especially ideal for areas that experience a lot of wear and tear.
Premium Pitch was used for both landing and take-off areas at the Stratford course. As these were newly constructed, they were oversown at the end of September. Within four weeks the sward showed strong rooting, was dense and a good colour.
Eric explains, “I was really pleased to see how quickly the Premium Pitch seed germinated and how strong and healthy the plants looked in such a short time. Getting the ground in the best condition possible before going into the winter months is essential for us, especially as the horseracing season starts up again in early March. Using this new, quality seed combined with a sustained nutritional programme has produced some impressive results. The grass plant now withstands our intense horseracing schedule very well.”
As part of an annual nutritional programme, recommended by Everris’ Technical Area Sales Manager Emma KiIby, Eric applies ProTurf before racing fixtures start. ProTurf is a granular, controlled release fertiliser which gives a strong initial response then slowly releases nutrients for 2-3 months afterwards. Sierrablen Plus (3 months longevity) is then applied twice during the season, followed by a final application of ProTurf autumn (12-5-20+2CaO+2MgO).
Emma Kilby adds: “Premium Pitch is a blend that’s ideal for use in the equestrian sector as the Stratford racecourse demonstrates“.