Hallowed turf ready when punters replace pilgrims
10,000 square metres of grass is being grown in the Hawkesbury region of NSW, to replace the turf at Royal Randwick Racecourse after Pope Benedict XVI’s open air mass, and the World Youth Day event, which is taking place at the racing venue.
The replacement turf is being grown in the Hawkesbury - at a cost of more than $2 million, mostly to the Catholic Church - in an attempt to save the lucrative Spring Carnival from possible cancellation. After the thoroughbred racing industry battled through equine influenza, extraordinary efforts are being made to ensure that neither rain nor the collective weight of 300,000 pilgrims will damage Royal Randwick’s track surface during the World Youth Day closing Mass to be presided over by Pope Benedict XVI in July.
