Monday 6 July - Newmarket’s Moët & Chandon July Festival is set to be the latest behind-closed-doors summer event to offer enhanced live weather data to horsemen, media and stay-at-home racing fans.
Delivered by TurfTrax via a dedicated page on The Jockey Club Newmarket website, essential information including GoinStick readings, rainfall, wind speed & direction, soil moisture content and rails positions will be available on demand from Monday 6 July.
Independent GoingStick readings will be updated daily from Monday, 6 July and will continue during the three-day fixture which begins on the Thursday, 9 July.
Mike Maher, Managing Director of Cambridgeshire-based technology company, TurfTrax, said, “Michael Prosser and the team at Newmarket Racecourses have played a major role in the development of a wide range of TurfTrax products during our 20-year relationship.
“The processes involved in gathering, analysing and preparing this data for output have been tested extensively at Newmarket and I am delighted that we are able to help them remain at the forefront technology in sport.”
Sophie Able, General Manager at The Jockey Club Newmarket said “this summer, more than ever, it’s vital that we are able to share real-time information to keep those with an interest in racing up to date and engaged. Although we can’t currently welcome racegoers to our courses we know huge numbers are following the action from home via our website and social media channels and this latest development from TurfTrax is a welcome addition to the content we’re able to share”
Because of the unique layout of both Newmarket courses the number of grid locations measured using the GoingStick varies depending on the longest race. Three ‘penetration’ and three ‘shear’ measurements are taken at each location. Additionally, a soil moisture reading is carried out each location meaning that typically 400 scientifically generated measurements contribute to the Going Report produced by TurfTrax.
The detailed data is uploaded to a database and analysed each day by Newmarket and TurfTrax alongside 15 years of live and historic weather and going data to assist with for example irrigation planning if required.
Live meteorological data is streamed from WeatherTrax equipment located in close-proximity to the 2-furlong marker on the Rowley Mile course. The data is logged every minute 24hrs a day and typically refreshes every five minutes on the web page. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this data, but values presented can differ from forecast predictions and automatically or manually recorded weather data at nearby locations. Recorded weather data can be dependent on a number of factors including; type of sensors used, methodology, height/positioning of sensing equipment and specific timing of updates.
