All systems go for the Flat season

After the muddy prologue of Doncaster's Lincoln meeting, the new turf Flat season proper hits its stride at Newmarket today. We welcome it with rather more fervour than normal, amid the dissatisfaction of a National Hunt term rendered incoherent by the dual scourges of the wettest winter on record and foot-and-mouth disease.

Tomorrow is day two of Newmarket's Craven meeting - the first fixture of classic-trial significance, from early types for the Sagitta-sponsored 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas next month to later developers for June's Vodafone Derby and Oaks. High-class older horses also kick off their initial manoeuvres.

There's a new squad in charge of racing's HQ, heralding a new era for its racegoers. Fresh from success in transforming Hay-dock and Warwick, Lisa Hancock (nee Rowe) assumed the managing director's chair last October and swiftly assembled a brave new team around her. Michael Prosser left Arena Leisure and Mike Rollo Tottenham Hotspur to take the respective roles of Newmarket's clerk of the course and commercial manager.

There is no doubt that a change of the guard was needed. Newmarket was tired and complacent, typified by the unveiling of the Rowley Mile's new £16 million Millennium grandstand to a chorus of disapproval this time last year. Its management stood guilty as accused of sacrificing the ordinary racegoer's needs on the altar of corporate hospitality.

Initial signs are that the customer satisfaction will be rather higher in the new pecking order. More seating and refreshment facilities are already in place and, if the quality of the turf for this week's Craven meeting is anything to go by, Newmarket's ascendancy begins here.

On ground a lush and uniform good-to-soft, perhaps even good in some places, centre stage tomorrow is shared between the Group Three Weatherbys Earl of Sefton Stakes for older horses and the Listed Victor Chandler European Free Handicap, a 2,000 Guineas trial.