National award for racecourse
Mark Bembrose groundsman Musselburgh racecourse
Many congratulations to Musselburgh’s head groundsman Mark Bemrose and his team, writes John Budden.
The team — comprising assistant head groundsman Toby Johnstone, groundsmen Mark Thompson, Andrew Jackson and Andrew Ross, and gardener Eddie Watt — have won the prestigious Neil Wyatt Ground Staff of 2011 Award for the best dual purpose racecourse in Britain.
Neil Wyatt was the best known Inspector of Courses of modern times. On his retirement he instigated these annual awards to the groundsmen responsible for three categories, flat-racecourses, jumping-only venues and dual purpose tracks.
To win a Neil Wyatt award is a huge tribute to the efficiency and pure hard graft of the team involved. Competition is razor sharp and ultimate success is an outstanding achievement. The awards are judged by a panel of experts from all sections of the racing industry and on this occasion it is understood that the first vote of the jury ended in a tie between Musselburgh and Ascot.
The trainers on the panel were then asked to cast a decisive vote and they unanimously opted for Musselburgh and Mark Bemrose, a glowing and much deserved compliment to the head groundsman and his staff.
This is the second time that Musselburgh has been honoured for the excellence of its turf husbandry.
Mark’s predecessor Jock Whitelaw won the award in the late 1990s having been runner up the previous season.
Full report in this week’s News
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Weather for Musselburgh
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
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