Martin Keighley Gallop Surface
At over 9f long Martin Keighley has one of the longest gallops in the Cotswolds. The track had not been used for some years as the old woodchip had degraded beyond use.
After checking out the products available on the market Martin Keighley chose Trojan Gallop Turf to refurbish his gallop surface which was reaching the end of its useful life.
Gallop Turf is engineered to give National Hunt trainers the ability to maintain a soft gallop surface footing to physically work the horses harder without running them fast, to build stamina and aerobic strength. The Trojan Gallop Turf surface is designed to let a trainer choose the depth and pace of the gallop surface footing.
Due to the size of the track a wax-coated premix surface was not a financially viable option due to surface area, therefore a site-mixed gallop turf blend was the only option.
This entails laying 6-7″ of sand. We then add our unique Trojan Gallop Fibre and Trojan Hair fibre and blend into the top 4-5″. During the process we corrected the topography of the gallop, excavating several thousand tons of cotswold stone and redistributing to improve the safety of the gradients – thus resulting in a far safer and effective training environment for National Hunt.
Martin, winning trainer of Annacotty in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase (Formerly the Feltham Novices’ Chase) was delighted with his gallop surface and we hope it helps to produce him many more winners in future.
Click the images below to see before and after shots
