The reason why Ripon
Racecourse is often named ‘Best Small Racecourse in the Northern England’ by
the Racegoers Club has been revealed by the venue’s head groundsman.
The North Yorkshire
racecourse has won the award in four of the last seven years. Although factors
such as viewing experience, facilities and atmosphere all play an important
part, head groundsman Carl Tonks explains that the racecourse is often singled out
for praise for its attractive grounds and numerous floral displays.
“People come to the
racecourse for a day out and for special events, so it’s important that the
environment looks good,” comments Carl. “We spend a lot time and effort
planting up containers and creating beautiful displays all around the grounds.”
The racecourse has a
reputation as ‘Yorkshire’s Garden Racecourse’ and has received several Gold
awards in the annual Yorkshire in Bloom competition. The grounds maintenance
programme includes tiered planters and window boxes located around the main
grandstand.
Carl and his team
also have a secret weapon in the form of self-watering planters which only need
to be watered once or twice a week even in the hottest conditions.
He explains:
“The self-watering planters help us create the wow factor as they provide
optimal growing conditions for a range of plants. They also use around
one seventh of the water that we previously used to maintain the displays.
"Watering less
frequently has reduced our labour and associated costs and the design of the
planters prevents run-off which was dirtying the areas below and causing a
slip-hazard.”
Ripon Racecourse has
used planters manufactured by Amberol who work with theme parks, councils and
businesses across the country.
The planters have a
built-in water reservoir with a matting system and a series of capillaries to
‘suck’ up the water as required. Because the water is stored under the soil, it
doesn’t evaporate in hot weather.
The venue recently
won the Professional Horse Racecourse Groundstaff category at the Institute of
Groundstaff 2017 awards. This was received in recognition of the high levels of
grounds maintenance which Carl believes Amberol’s planters play an important
part in.
With a history dating back to the 17th century, Ripon Racecourse moved to its current site in 1900. The venue
holds regular flat racing events throughout the season offering prize money in
excess of £1million. It has one of the longest home straights in the country,
over looked by the main grandstand
The Ripon Racecourse
grounds team are currently busy undergoing work to get the racecourse ready for
the opening meeting of the 2018 season on Thursday April 19th.
