Happy Valley
In the fast-paced world of horse racing, there’s no time to let the grass grow under your feet, but Hong Kong Jockey Club officials took this advice literally this year when they turned to a state-of-the-art European lighting technology to boost turf growth at the Happy Valley racetrack in time for the start of the new season.
A system known as grow light technology has been brought in from the Netherlands – the first time it has been used on a horse racing track – to help grass regrow after work in July to install an underground stormwater storage tank saw two drainage tunnels dug across the course.
The technology, which is used by major football clubs, was picked to bring the track back up to racing standard within six weeks, less than the usual six months needed.
“We had to utilise this latest technology in a very tight time window to get things moving to produce a stable, consistent, uniform surface that a horse won’t have issues with,” said Pako Ip Pak-chung, executive manager of tracks for the Jockey Club.
A series of lighting rigs were set up on the track, each measuring 11 by 22 metres and holding 60 1,000-watt bulbs that emit an orange glow.
The turf on horse racing tracks is managed extremely carefully as grass that is too long can be slippery, and grass too short does not provide adequate cushioning for a horse’s hooves.
Ip’s team was forced to returf an area on either side of one of the drainage tunnels as horses can be spooked by a small patch of grass with a different colour or texture to the rest of the course.
The lights were turned on between 8pm and 8am daily for varying lengths of time depending on the amount of sunlight the patch received during the day.
The lighting system was used for the last time this weekend and Ip said it will be used again if needed in the future.
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