SLIGO manager Kathryn Foley said the racecourse will implement a number of measures to avoid any further accidents on course.

Last Friday week, Sligo abandoned their card after four horses slipped and fell on the bend past the stands. The incident led to a broken collarbone for apprentice Ben Coen, while the three other riders involved were unhurt.

The Irish Horse Regulatory Board (IHRB) issued a statement on Monday, noting that two days previously, at the track’s National Hunt meeting on August 5th, a rider approached the clerk of the course to express concern about that bend being slippy after the first race.

Some remedial work took place but after the second race another rider suggested that further action was required and sand was applied. The meeting went ahead without incident.

Sligo’s traditional two-day fixture the week after Galway usually begins with an evening of flat racing with jumping the following day but the cards were reversed this year.

Fixtures

Foley told The Irish Field yesterday: “As a result of the Covid-19 crisis some changes were made to the fixture list and we had to accept them.

“On August 7th, the issue was not with the bend which the National Hunt jockeys had reported on August 5th. It was a narrow strip of ground crossing the track from the stable yard where the grass had become flattened and which had become waxy and slippy which was not discernible to the eye.

“Horses boxes are parked in the middle of the track in Sligo and people and horses walk across the track to the yard.

“So in preparation for our next meeting on Wednesday, machinery will not cross there but will go along a back alley from the main road.

Remedial work

“We are trying to alternate between two crossings of the track to have less traffic in the one place. We are also using a hollow core machine to aerate the soil which has been successful at tracks in the UK like Windsor and Goodwood. I’ve talked to the clerk of the course at Goodwood and discussed its use there.

“Next year the sequence of meetings will be back to normal. There was nothing to detect that the ground presented for racing on August 7th was dangerous. We’re very upset. Our thoughts are with Ben Coen and we hope he is back racing soon. We don’t want anyone getting hurt at Sligo Racecourse.”