The Jockey Club today announces that Haydock Park plans to resume racing on Friday 7^th August following the cancellation of fixtures after a hole appeared in the Flat outer track during a raceday in May.

To support the return to racing in August, the fixtures scheduled to take place on Friday 17^th and Saturday 18^th July have been cancelled, allowing time for the necessary repair works to the outer course to be completed.

The fixture scheduled for Saturday 18^th July will now take place at Nottingham Racecourse on the same date. The British Horseracing Authority will finalise the race programme for Nottingham and announce plans for the rescheduling of the meeting on Friday 17^th July in due course.

The Madness concert originally scheduled to take place after racing on Saturday 18^th July will go ahead at Haydock Park as planned. All ticket purchasers and hospitality guests will be contacted directly with further information about the concert and refund process.

All ticket purchasers for racing on Friday 17^th July will receive automatic refunds, while hospitality customers will be contacted directly by the racecourse team.

Daniel Cooper, Clerk of the Course at Haydock Park, said: “While it is disappointing to cancel our fixtures in July, we are confident that this is the right decision to allow us to work with the relevant experts to complete further investigations and carry out the recommended repair to the outer track.

“Our investigations have narrowed down the cause of the issue to a fissure associated with historic mining activity in the area and that elements of a previous repair deteriorated, which created a pocket of instability beneath the turf, which led to the hole that appeared in May.  

“Working with independent structural engineers and experts in this field, we have traced the fissure and will replace the previous repair with a more robust and durable solution. This will involve using a membrane and repair technique utilising modern materials and layers of material found in the natural makeup of the land.”

Cooper continued: “We also conducted a Ground Penetration Radar Survey across the entire course. As you would expect, the survey identified some anomalies which we have checked. The results will enable us to produce an up-to-date map of the racecourse to support our enhanced maintenance programme which will now be put in place.

“We have always been of the view that, in the interests of safety, it would not be appropriate to race on the inner course while the excavated area remained exposed on the adjacent outer course. However, having spent considerable time investigating and analysing the results, we are now confident that once we have repaired and filled in the excavated areas of the outer course, we will be able to race on the inner course. While we allow the outer course time to recover from the necessary work, the team will work hard to ensure the inner course is in the best condition possible to stage all racing in the meantime.

“We would like to thank the British Horseracing Authority for their support in rescheduling our cancelled fixtures, and the National Trainers Federation, Professional Jockeys’ Association, Racecourse Owners’ Association and our annual members and racegoers for their understanding and patience while we have conducted our investigations over the past few weeks.”