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GOINGSTICK
In January 2009, it became a requirement of the Rules of Racing that a GoingStick reading be made available by racecourses for each fixture staged - at the declaration stage (a few days in advance of racing) and then again on raceday itself. These readings are published alongside a Clerk of the Course's official going description.
Moving beyond the traditional subjective approach used until now, the GoingStick is a device that Clerks of the Course use to give an objective numerical reading that will reflect the state of the going at any given racecourse.
Developed by Cranfield University and TurfTrax over a five year period, the device was extensively and successfully trialled, before becoming a requirement under the Rules in 2009, and has logged over 6500 official overall course readings in the last two years alone.
A GoingStick reading is specific to an individual racecourse and most valuable when considered in the context of historical readings at that course. Below are the mean readings for all fixtures across all of Britain’s racecourses (by code) over the last two years:
Note: This is not an official scale and should not be used to give a specific indication of the Going at any individual course.
| OFFICIAL GOING DESCRIPTION GIVEN BY CLERK OF COURSE - FLAT
| NUMBER OF REPORTS LOGGED
| MEAN GOINGSTICK READING
|
| HEAVY
| 68
| 5.5
|
| SOFT
| 258
| 6.4
|
| GOOD TO SOFT
| 581
| 7.1
|
| GOOD
| 1165
| 8.0
|
| GOOD TO FIRM
| 1538
| 8.9
|
| FIRM
| 150
| 10.1
|
| HARD
| 0
| N/A
|
| OFFICIAL GOING DESCRIPTION GIVEN BY CLERK OF COURSE - JUMP
| NUMBER OF REPORTS LOGGED
| MEAN GOINGSTICK READING
|
| HEAVY
| 210
| 5.2
|
| SOFT
| 499
| 6.0
|
| GOOD TO SOFT
| 672
| 6.9
|
| GOOD
| 1089
| 8.0
|
| GOOD TO FIRM
| 543
| 9.0
|
| FIRM
| 10
| 10.5
|
| HARD
| 0
| N/A
|
Where an official going description given by a Clerk of the Course falls between two possible ground descriptions (for example: ‘Good, good to firm in places’), the first and therefore predominant ground description (in this case ‘Good’) is used for statistical purposes.
To find out more about the GoingStick, click on the film below.
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