A racecourse manages one asset above all: the ground the horses run on. Pitch & Course builds the soil under the track so the going is more consistent across the season, the turf recovers faster, and holding good ground in summer takes less water.
20 bags of 25 kg, spread once a year at 500 kg per hectare with a standard spreader. Delivery quoted at order.
Every fixture presses the soil together, and the weather does the rest. The going swings from heavy to firm, the same ground is watered in July and waterlogged in January, and the landing sides and the rail-side line divot faster than they repair.
Water that cannot get in has nowhere to go. An inspection, an abandonment or a card lost to the ground costs more than anything you put on it.
Soil with little humus dries fast and holds little. Keeping good ground through a dry spell takes water, pump hours and staff time, week after week.
Shallow roots knit divots slowly. The tighter the fixture list, the more the repair crew is repairing ground that has not had time to root back.
Two Irish racecourses have had Bacteriosol under the racing surface and the parade ring since 2019, and both have extended the area every year. Their managers have put on the record what they saw: deeper roots, a sod that recovers faster after racing, and ground that drains.
Started on the parade ring and a small piece of track that was proving difficult for sod depth and water retention, monitored with the course's track advisor, and extended every year since. By 2023 it covered about a quarter of the racing surface.
We have found that the roots system has increased year on year and has led to improved sod strength, quality and density. The biggest return we have made for our investment is seeing the sod under foot recovering quicker than before after each race meeting, and ultimately leading to a safer racing surface.
The walk in to the parade ring lay wet and soggy after any overnight rain and had to be cordoned off on race days. Three years after the first application it was filmed the morning after a stormy night with 10 to 15 mm of rain, and the manager said it was “making our job so much easier to bring areas literally back to life”.
After a very, very wet night we have practically dry soil, meaning that the drainage in the area is just fantastic.
Their words, on the record, from two courses that started small and now treat more ground every year. Every order comes with the record sheet, so your ground joins the record.
Sand, synthetic phosphate and potash, and a good part of the nitrogen are bought to do what a living soil does on its own. Water comes down with them.
Press With Pitch & Course to see what changes. Press a line to read why.
Half the sand on established turf. Sand is bought to open a tight surface and dilute thatch. The biology turns thatch into humus and builds the crumb structure that sand was standing in for, so the dressing halves. Keep what you use for levelling.
No synthetic phosphate or potash. Most turf soils hold years of both, locked up where roots cannot use it. The biology unlocks it around the roots, so the synthetic bag comes off. That is the SOBAC plan, and it is the plan that runs on more than 300,000 hectares.
40 per cent less bought nitrogen. Organisms at the surface take nitrogen from the air and the humus releases what it holds, so the sward is fed from the soil instead of the bag.
Less water to keep it green, and here is what was measured. On a split trial, 100 mm of water went into treated ground in 235 seconds against about 27 minutes untreated, so rain and irrigation reach the roots instead of running off. Roots went from 35 cm to 95 cm on heavy clay, so the sward draws on water it could not reach before. Humus holds water where the roots are.
The sand, phosphate and potash and nitrogen figures are the SOBAC plan for established turf, the plan that runs on more than 300,000 hectares. The water figures were measured in soil pits on Warwickshire clay and in a split trial in Brittany. The record sheet that comes with every order adds your ground to that record.
A living soil needs less put on it. That is better for the water that leaves the ground, for the players and horses on the surface, and for the wildlife at the edges.
What you do not spread cannot wash off. Less bought nitrogen, no synthetic phosphate or potash and half the sand hauled in means less leaving the ground in drainage water and fewer lorries on the drive. The humus it builds is carbon held in the soil.
Bacteriosol is naturally occurring soil biology on a plant and mineral base, non-toxic and non-pathogenic. The surface can be used as soon as the granules have gone in, and the players, horses and grounds staff are on ground that gets fewer synthetic inputs each season.
A soil that is alive underneath feeds everything above it, the insects and the birds that work a pitch or a course at first light. Less synthetic input reaches the margins, the hedges and the water's edge.
The change is biological, so it builds year on year. Fairyhouse is four years into it and still extending the area.
The biology establishes. The first changes are in the cores: root depth and density, and how quickly a ring of water goes in. Divot recovery starts to shorten.
Structure is visibly opening in a pit. The going moves less between a wet week and a dry one. Watering does more per pass.
Humus is built through the profile. The track holds itself, and the routine stays the same: one pass a year, in the autumn window.
Treat one course, or one section of it, and leave a matched section untreated. The home straight of one course against the other, or the hurdles course against the chase course. Then measure both, on the same days, through a full season.
Bring in the turf consultant the BHA requires you to retain from the start. The comparison is theirs to read as much as yours. A one page record sheet comes with the order. A baseline soil profile, dug and read before the first application, is a priced extra: ask when you order.
Fairyhouse and Naas have had it under the track and the parade ring since 2019, and in France it went under the track at Loudéac in 2025. Your course can be the first in Britain with the result on the record.
| Racing surface | Area | Pallets | A year, plus VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home straight, one course | 2 ha | 2 | £2,000 |
| A flat course, round and straight | 8 ha | 8 | £8,000 |
| Hurdles and chase courses together | 12 ha | 12 | £12,000 |
| A large dual purpose course, all racing surface | 20 ha | 20 | £20,000 |
Areas are illustrations. Send us the track plan and we will work it out to the bag.
One pallet covers one hectare. Treat the home straight, leave the back straight, and read the difference in the cores by spring.