HARPER LODGE FARM has a new all-weather gallop which is now open for business and recent results prove that the gallop is proving to be a real asset to the yard.
The stable has had four winners this month with Varsovian, Cappananty Con and Tangramm winning on successive days earlier in the month while Tropics came back to winning form last Saturday.
The gallop is a state-of-the-art artificial surface produced by Martin Collins, the world’s leading manufacturer of all-weather tracks and artificial surfaces for the racing and bloodstock industries. At the forefront of synthetic equestrian surface development for over thirty years, Martin Collins has supplied over 200 kilometres of gallops surfaces to various racing, point-to-point and event horses trainers around the world.
Around 30 huge lorries have been delivering the new surface during recent months at a not insubstantial cost. The material and transport combined has topped over £100,000 and this has not included any labour involved in laying down the new gallop as it was installed internally. The trainer supervised the laying of the new gallop with the help of his father and previous occupier of the training licence at Harper Lodge Farm, Mr Ken Ivory.
There is probably not a trainer in the land who does not now use some form of all-weather. The benefits to horses are that they can exercise with less pressure on the joints and the surface is consistent throughout. In addition, the gallops can operate at below freezing temperatures and the “going” can altered to suit slower or faster work.
The trainer is delighted with the new gallop. “It is expensive but we have a lot of nice horses here and they deserve the best. We’ve had a good season and I’m sure this will help us achieve many more winners in 2018.”