Scott Dixon hoping Southwell not out of action for too long

Adam Morgan
October 23, 2023 3:38 pm

Trainer had to move his horse to Wolverhampton due to flooding.

Scott Dixon does not envisage being away from his Southwell racecourse base for long after flooding forced the handler to dramatically relocate his horses to Wolverhampton.

The trainer operates out of yards at both all-weather tracks but was left with the challenge of moving 40 of his horses as his Southwell facility bore the brunt of Storm Babet.

Having successfully shifted his Southwell string across the midlands to Dunstall Park, Dixon is eager to catch his breath before contemplating a return to the Nottinghamshire venue.

Dixon saddles plenty of runners on Southwell's all-weather track — Dixon saddles plenty of runners on Southwell’s all-weather track (Simon Marper/PA)

“Our yard at Southwell is totally and utterly clear of water and the water level receded pretty quickly,” explained Dixon.

“We’ll just take a deep breath, let the horses settle, and the horse’s who are due to be running at Wolverhampton during this busy month or two will naturally stop there.

“We’ve got a bit of a clean-up process at Southwell and when we move back there will all depend on when the track is back in action, which will be sooner rather than later I would have thought.

“It will be a moving timescale and we will take it day by day and we’ll be moving some of the horses back as soon as we can use the track for exercise.”

Dixon is thankful he is in the unique position of having stabling facilities to operate out of both Southwell and Wolverhampton, which meant he simply had to beat the rising water overflowing from the nearby River Greet rather than worry about what location a majority of his string could be transported to.

He added: “For now we’re absolutely fine where we are and thank goodness we are in a bit of a unique situation anyway in that we’ve got two yards.

“We’ve got Southwell and Wolverhampton and if we didn’t have that then getting 40 horses relocated to somewhere that has the facilities to exercise are few and far between.

“The important thing is all the horses are absolutely fine and all the staff are also absolutely fine.

Trainer Scott Dixon has hailed the efforts of his staff (Mike Egerton/PA)

“All animals and people are fine and the horses have dealt with it remarkably well, they have all eaten up and trotted up fine out on the track at Wolverhampton and we’ve managed to get every single horse out who was supposed to go out today.

“We’re keeping the show on the road and we’ve got multiple runners at Wolverhampton and we are just kicking on.”

The trainer has also hailed the efforts of his staff and the assistance of those nearby as the they pulled together to escape a potentially dangerous situation unscathed.

“Credit goes both to my team and some of the guys still at the racecourse and various people who came to help us during the whole process,” said Dixon.

“It’s less than ideal but you have just got to get your sensible head on and figure it out and as always the priority is always the horses and the people and the animals. We pulled it together and got it done.”

The fixtures at Southwell on October 26, October 30, November 2 and November 4 have been abandoned.