YORK Racecourse’s huge drainage project seems right on track for the start of the new Flat season on Knavesmire in May.

The onset of spring has seen the grass start to knit following the £2.5 million scheme, which aims to ensure chiefs can produce the best possible racing surface at York.

One of the largest projects of its kind undertaken on a British racecourse, they have installed a comprehensive drainage scheme under the track which, it is hoped, will improve conditions and reduce the risk of abandonments.

And, while the turf is by no means perfect yet, James Brennan, Knavesmire marketing manager, said the team were pleased with how things were developing ahead of the start of racing on May 13.

“It was always going to need the warmer spring weather just to come on and make it look the best it can. All we can say in mid-March is that the team are very pleased with how the project went,” Brennan said.

“The heavy diggers and all the heavy work finished on the track by the back end of October and now it is in Adrian’s (Kay, head groundsman) tender care.

“It is looking greener day by day and the team have been pleased. We are in a good position – the next two months are clearly important in terms of turf husbandry.”

Brennan added that a new canter down to the straight start will save horses from using the track as they prepare for some races, saving thousands of hoof prints a year, and he said there will be more space in the course enclosure this season thanks to landscaping work.

“We’ve put in a new rail – in terms of the safety rail – and the running rail has largely gone back up,” he said. “There is also a new canter down. So on the stand side, from the parade ring, we’ve put that in down to the straight start.

“It is another of those things which will stop horses using the track. That will be a good thing.”

Brennan added: “In the course enclosure, we’ve slightly widened the top step and that will give a wider plateau to put the tote units and the St John’s Ambulance and provide some standing space. It may be more mid-summer before that’s back looking right.

“What it also shows is the sensible way the team have managed all of the earth that has come out of the drains. That’s what has gone in to form that landscape banking.

“Rather than putting in dump trucks and taking it away in big lorries, they have used it to do a little bit of remodelling in the course enclosure.”