02/12/2011

Judges for the prestigious IOG (Institute of Groundsmanship) Industry Awards 2011 have announced York Racecourse as the first ever racecourse to win one of their coveted National Awards. The York trophy cabinet now includes the title of "Spectator Sports Ground of the Year 2011".

The award was open to all professional sporting venues and involved both a detailed submission followed by an extensive site visit from an IOG expert invigilator. Showing the strength of the competition York scored higher than premiership football with The Liberty Stadium, home of Swansea City, the runner up.

York becomes the first racecourse to win an IOG Award, a feat made more impressive because it first required a nomination from an independent Groundsman from another venue. Picking up that point Adrian Kay, Head Groundsman at York, said; "One of many the good things about us being an active participant in the IOG is that you share best practice and knowledge and so we regularly visit other venues and they come to York. We have had visits from the Head Groundsmen at leading cricket, golf and premiership football stadiums this season and the fact that we one of them nominated us is an incredible honour. These really are the Oscars of our industry."

Once nominated, the Racecourse had to submit a written entry and portfolio illustrating all aspects of turf husbandry and works undertaken. Then followed an inspection by the IOG Head Judge. Adrian continues; "the Head Judge was very keen to see the work we had done on the racing surface, the detail of our track development project and our work to improve the lawns and floral displays around the site. He was only meant to be with us for an hour and stayed all morning! It was particularly pleasing because we were judged by people who understand the detailed technicalities of what we do; they wanted to know what machines we used, what turf husbandry regimes we follow even what our policies are for maintenance and health and safety. We have a dedicated and hard working team here with everyone, from the board, through the management and the grounds team who are committed to the innovation, improvement and the highest standards to manage the venue."

The Racecourse Team have already experienced success in the seasonal round of Awards with a Yorkshire in Bloom Gold Award coming to the Knavesmire, and to mark the efforts of Head Gardener Ian Halstead there was also a lifetime recognition award for his 44 years of service at York Racecourse and its own floriculture unit. The Marketing Department collected a racing Industry Showcase Award for the Fashion on the Field activity that saw Jeff Banks celebrate fun and fashion on all four days of the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival.

As well as collecting awards, the track set records in 2011, when a record annual attendance of over 361,000 racegoers enjoyed seeing a record number of runners over the 17 day season from mid May to mid October.
ENDS