ABSTRACT
Injury to horse and jockey can be linked to the state and consistency of the ground around a racecourse (Henley et al., 2006; McCrory et al., 2006). This directly affects the decision of the trainer/owner to run a horse in a race particularly where the conditions are either very soft or very hard. It is in the racecourse’s best interest to maintain larger race fields since there is a direct relationship between the size of the race field and the revenue generated (Winter, 1998). The value of the British horseracing industry represents two-thirds of the £9 billion turnover to the betting industry and over £100 million in prize money available to owners of racehorses (Mintel, 2005). The most commonly used method to report on the condition of the ground has been based on “Clerks of the Course” walking the racecourse, pushing a walking stick into the ground to provide an opinion as to the state of the “going” – a description of the ground condition with five intermediate stages between the extremes of “hard” and “soft”. The need for an objective measurement has been driven by long term frustrations regarding the accuracy and consistency of reports published by racecourses.
