Haydock forced to abandon races on round course
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Sat 23 May 2026
Racing at Haydock was switched to the inside course after Friendly Soul took a false step in the opening on Saturday, but only sprint races were allowed to take place with those on the round track abandoned.
John and Thady Gosden’s Group One winner was returning following nearly 600 days off the track in the opening William Hill Epic Boost British EBF Hedge Of Oak Stakes and appeared to go wrong under Oisin Murphy in the opening race.
However, after reviewing footage and following a subsequent inspection it was proved a hole was responsible for the misstep with racing on the outer track, being used for the first time on Saturday over the three-day meeting, deemed unsafe to continue.
A contingency was made for racing to switch to the inner track, used on both Thursday and Friday, but with not enough time to realign the running rails for races due to take place on the round course, only the feature Temple Stakes and Sandy Lane Stakes, plus the five-furlong William Hill Price Boosts Every Day Handicap would take place.
Clerk of the course Dan Cooper told ITV Racing: “In the first race Friendly Sould took a misstep so we asked our team to go and take a look at the surface as we would do at anytime and our head groundsman reported an issue was found.
“I suggested this is formal inspection grounds and we have looked at the track and decided there is a significant drainage issue and it seems to be a hole from our drainage system that has caused the misstep and therefore this wouldn’t be safe to race on today, that was my advice to the BHA.”
A similar issue delayed the concluding race to Cheltenham’s Trial’s day fixture in January and eventually led to the flagship jumps course abandoning their final three meetings of the 2025-26 season.
Cooper added: “Driving down to the inspection I said I was amazed because we have lots of people walking on this track each hour and no one has gone down that (hole) yet.
“I wonder what does cause these things and it could potentially be the grass covering it as we do inspections every day and I walk this track frequently.
“We don’t know and it’s really hard and what’s the cause of it? Well it’s soil, it’s science, it’s drainage and quite a complex area.”
He went on: “We went to have a look at the inside track as we’d been racing on it for two days.
“There were soft divots and the odd heavy divot on the inside that we were able to sand this morning so the stalls are going to go in the centre with the expected knowledge from the jockeys to not race on the inside.”
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