Awards celebrate the best in class of racecourse groundsmanship and turf husbandry

Arena Racing Company’s Charlie Moore wins Neil Wyatt Lifetime Achievement Award  

The Racecourse Association (RCA) is delighted to announce the winners of the Racecourse Groundstaff Awards for 2024.

Sponsored by Agrovista Amenity, DLF Seeds & Science and Duralock the award winners were decided by an industry panel comprised of representatives from the Professional Jockeys Association (PJA), British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and National Trainers Federation (NTF).

The winners and runners up across the three racecourse categories are as follows:

Flat winner—York Racecourse

Jump winner—Aintree Racecourse

Dual purpose winner—Carlisle Racecourse
 

Flat runners-up—Bath and Royal Windsor Racecourses

Jump runner-up—Cheltenham Racecourse

Dual purpose-runner up—Newbury Racecourse

Consequently, York, Aintree and Carlisle will all be in the running to be crowned the 2024 Racecourse Groundstaff Champion. The announcement will be made at the thirteenth annual RCA Showcase Awards held at The Signet Library, Edinburgh on Thursday 7th November.

The winners and runners-up are deemed to have demonstrated the highest levels of commitment, innovation and excellence across the year to racecourse groundsmanship and turf husbandry. The racecourses all showed impressive dedication to environmental sustainability, innovation, equine welfare and training.

William Derby, Chief Executive and Clerk of the Course, at York said: “We are thrilled to win the Flat Racecourse Groundstaff Award for 2024 and it is a tremendous tribute to the hard work and efforts of all the team at York led by Adrian Kay and Anthea Leigh. 

“York has been delighted to welcome a record number of horses to York this year and to stage some fantastic racing across the season, including City of Troy’s breathtaking win in the Juddmonte International. This is only possible because of the combination of talent, endeavour and investment by all concerned to provide a suitable racing surface for these wonderful horses to perform. 

“We dedicate this win to Kevin Upton, our dear friend and colleague who gave over 30 years’ service to the York grounds team and who lost his long battle with cancer in July. Kev exemplified all that is great about groundstaff—a team player with a dedication that was second to none, an appetite to innovate and improve and a cheery disposition whatever the weather, time of day or circumstance!”    

Sulekha Varma, Clerk of the Course, said: “We are hugely honoured to have been named Racecourse Groundstaff Awards Jumps Course of the Year. The past 12 months have been incredibly busy for the team, taking on some high impact projects in-house as part of the delivery of the changes to the Grand National that we announced in October 2023.

The team took our focus on equine welfare to heart and came up with their own suggestions and recommendations as part of the process and we are proud of the way the whole team engaged in the delivery of the initiatives. Like groundstaff across the whole country, the Aintree team work on whatever the weather and face up to all challenges, but what they have achieved in the past year has been particularly notable and we are delighted it has been recognised.”

Harry Phipps, Clerk of the Course, said: “We are thrilled to have been named as this year’s Dual-Purpose Category Award winner. It means a great deal to the team considering the competitiveness of the award, especially as a small racecourse.

“Carlisle is well known for its challenging weather conditions and this year has been much the same. Regardless, the team has shown great resilience and dedication, ensuring Carlisle can provide a great racing product for all participants. Congratulations to Thomas, Adam, Dan and Davey within our core grounds team, as well as our extended team in the stable yard and out on the track.”

In addition to this, three further awards were given:

·         The Richard Linley Award to Nathan Durrance from Great Yarmouth, in recognition of his enthusiasm and commitment to working hard and developing his skills since joining the team in July 2023.

·         The Neil Wyatt Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Charlie Moore from Arena Racing Company in recognition to his contribution to the sport over his impressive career.

·         The Special Merit Award was given to all racecourses who experienced severe flooding during their season. It has been a relentless year for the courses who faced flooding and every team did an outstanding job during this time.

Mark Spincer, Managing Director (Racing Division) at Arena Racing Company, said: “We are absolutely delighted to see Charlie and Nathan receive these Awards. Charlie's years of experience at Racecourses across the country have been of huge value not just to ARC as a company, but to the wider sport also. The Neil Wyatt Lifetime Achievement Award recognises that fact and is very much deserved.

“Likewise with Nathan, who has shown great enthusiasm to develop his career at Great Yarmouth after a career change. Nathan has proven himself a real asset to the team in his relatively short time at the racecourse and is a very worthy recipient of the Richard Linley Newcomer Award.

"Everyone at ARC is equally as proud of all of our Grounds Teams who have continued to work in very difficult conditions over the past year. We are delighted to see both Royal Windsor and Bath recognised in the flat category as well as the Merit Awards for Southwell and Worcester's teams who have overcome the significant issues faced with the flooding that they have experienced at both racecourses."

The BHA Inspectors of Courses said: “As in previous years, this is a very competitive and high standard competition to judge, with many racecourses getting accolades and high praise from the panel. All courses deserve recognition for their dedication and hard work especially in a year which has been very challenging from an agronomy point of view.

“A hearty well done to all the winners. We would like to acknowledge York’s achievement for once again leading the flat racecourses despite the sad loss to cancer of their Assistant Head Groundsperson, Kevin Upton, who was a key member of the team for over 30 years.”

Dale Gibson, Executive Director (Racing) at the PJA, said: “Every year, without fail countless ground staff work tirelessly to produce a safe and effective racing surface for horses and jockeys.  We witnessed unprecedented rainfall over several weeks earlier this year which meant many staff were challenged even more than usual.

“Everyone who was nominated deserves extra recognition with additional congratulations to the winning teams. The PJA and our safety officers continue to regularly work with venues and their ground staff on all aspects of track management.”

George Noad, Racing Industry Manager at the NTF, said: “The high quality of work undertaken by Groundstaff in difficult conditions this year has made it very difficult to pick winners. The awards have gone to Groundstaff who provide an excellent racing surface and continue to show improvements on the track. The hard work undertaken by Groundstaff is very important for the safety of all the sport’s participants.”