Ludlow Loses Entire Jumps Season After Drought

Ludlow has scrapped its remaining 2026-27 fixtures after a BHA inspection, with racing not due back until October 2027...

By Puntrr Editorial

Ludlow Racecourse will stage no more racing this season after the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) inspected the Shropshire track on Thursday 12 November 2026 and the course cancelled all of its remaining 2026-27 fixtures. The damage dates back to an exceptionally hot and dry summer, and the racecourse says it plans to return in October 2027.

The decision removes a long-standing jumps venue from the calendar for the rest of the winter. It also leaves the sport reshuffling a dozen fixtures at short notice, with the first of them due within days.

What has been confirmed at Ludlow

The track had already lost its first three meetings of the autumn. It was due to make a belated start with a card on Monday 23 November, but that meeting will now be run elsewhere, and Ludlow will not race again until the 2027-28 campaign.

In a statement issued after the inspection, the racecourse said it had been "forced to cancel all remaining fixtures" for the season because of the condition of the ground following the hot, dry summer. It added that it plans to return "stronger than ever" in October 2027.

Ludlow is a quick-draining, gravel-based course. That is usually a strength in a wet winter, but it leaves the track exposed when rainfall is scarce, because the soil holds little moisture. Roughly a quarter of the course has been the main concern, where staff have been trying to replace dead grass and encourage fresh growth.

Managing director and clerk of the course Simon Sherwood had warned at the time of the previous abandonment that the autumn rain had not sparked the grass into life. He said some areas had either died or been badly hurt, and that staff were hoping to stimulate regrowth with seed and liquid fertiliser. He also said that falling temperatures and shorter days were making that harder as the weeks went on.

Where the fixtures are going

The BHA says Ludlow's 12 remaining fixtures have all been given new homes. Tom Byrne, the BHA's head of racing and betting, acknowledged the disappointment for everyone connected with Ludlow, including participants and jump racing fans who had been planning to run at or visit the track. He said Ludlow has an important place within British jump racing and that the BHA had worked with the racecourse to facilitate the transfers ahead of racing resuming next autumn. He added that the BHA will keep supporting the course so that it can return to the programme next year.

The transfers listed so far include:

• 23 November 2026: Huntingdon
• 2 December 2026: Catterick Bridge
• 16 December 2026: Ayr
• 7 January 2027: Taunton
• 21 January 2027: Warwick
• 10 February 2027: Wincanton
• 24 February 2027: Wincanton
• 9 May 2027: Huntingdon

The remaining fixtures are also being moved to other courses. Some of them may sit at venues that have themselves struggled with ground conditions this autumn, so the dates of individual transferred cards could yet be affected by the weather in their new locations. The full programme is published by the BHA.

A wider problem for jump racing

Ludlow is not the only jumps track to have felt the effects of the dry spell. Exeter, Kempton, Taunton and Wincanton have all lost fixtures because the ground has been too firm. Wincanton's Badger Beers Trophy day was moved to Aintree, and its card on 19 November had already been cancelled by the time of the Ludlow announcement.

Earlier in the week, the picture in the south-west was still uncertain. Taunton's season opener on 12 November was lost to unsuitable ground, and Exeter's meeting on 16 November was cancelled because of hard ground. At that point Wincanton was hoping rain might rescue its card on 24 November, while Taunton was pinning its hopes on 26 November.

Taunton's chief executive, Patrick Davis, said the course had been irrigating since mid-September and had put on about 100mm artificially. He pointed out that watering does not do the same job as natural rainfall. Wincanton's Tom Ryall explained that its reservoir refills from rainfall and that using the water without sufficient rain in the forecast would not be enough to get racing under way. Those comments were made on 10 November, before the Ludlow decision, so they show the state of play at the time rather than a current forecast.

For trainers, the immediate effect is fewer low-grade opportunities on the jumps calendar and a number of fixtures moving to new tracks, sometimes at a different distance from their yards. For Ludlow, the focus now turns to recovering the surface over the coming months.

Written by Puntrr Editorial