He continued: “We don’t have the water to keep watering as we have to pull it out of the River Corve to supplement what we can get from the reservoir and, at that time of year, there are restrictions. We had to sit and suffer until the rain came again.

“It was not until about September time that the grass started to wake up again. But it became very evident that, in certain parts of the track, some of the grass had actually died – and it became clear that we had an issue with regrowth. And that we needed to reseed.”

Some of the worst affected areas were on crucial parts of the track, like bends and fences.

“Ludlow is quite famous for its tight corners. And we need to guarantee for the jockeys that the grassroots have knitted properly and that there is going to be no risk of slippage,” Sherwood added.

“We’ve had agronomists on the track since August advising us on what we can and can’t do.

“Things are slightly out of our control as the grass starts to thicken out.

“It has been unseasonally warm of late, we are watering and we have got same moisture but it’s in the lap of the Gods.”