An admission that GoingStick readings, which measure the state of the ground, are being massaged hurts the sport
What is the state of the going at Thirsk before the track’s meeting tomorrow evening? In a well-run racing industry, this should not be a trick question, but it does rather feel that way after James Sanderson, the track’s clerk of the course, admitted in an interview last week that when it comes to GoingStick readings – the numbers that professionals and punters alike rely upon as an objective guide to the state of the ground – he feels at liberty to massage the data as he sees fit.
Sanderson told an interviewer from the Barstewards Enquiry podcast, which is a sponsor at his track, that he had knocked a point off the actual reading from his GoingStick before publication ahead of Thirsk’s meeting on 12 April. He subsequently told the Racing Post that he had done so because “if we published the readings as they came out of the ground they would be misleading”, and added for good measure that he does not believe he is the only clerk of course that routinely tweaks the numbers.
