Earlier this year, Wetherby had to resort to hurdle-only racing as it was deemed that the stretch of the chase course round the final bend and into the home straight, ground never previously used for racing, was not up to standard. The alterations were forced on the executive by the upgrading of the A1.

Two successive wet summers have made it impossible to work on the new surface to the extent the Steeplechase Committee would have wished, but every effort has been made since the rains abated and new chief executive Jonjo Sanderson is a confirmed optimist.

Sanderson, who replaced his brother James at Wetherby when the latter was appointed to oversee the development of a major race course development in Bahrain, accepts the course will not be at its best for the coming season.

"It's not perfect, but then the new ground has only been raced on for two seasons. We are not alone in having problems following work on the course – Ascot are still not right for chasing after three years.

"The sward is much better this year thanks to 100 per cent better growth and we will continue to work on aeration, compaction and fertilising over the next few weeks. The take-off and landing areas have been hollow-cored – which lets the ground breathe and expand – and we will water if we have to, but maybe there will be enough rain to soften the ground."

There have been rumours that several trainers are considering not running their charges at Wetherby until they have seen how the chase course races next month, but Sanderson pointed out: "We invited our regular trainers to a meeting at which we explained the issues and what we were doing to alleviate them.

"Only two, Peter Beaumont and Malcolm Jefferson, turned up. Micky Hammond walked the course last week and said he would be happy to have runners at Wetherby and Keith Reveley has also been to see us. He said he would run his horses here, but probably not his top ones. It's down to individual opinion. Richard Lindley, the British Horseracing Authority's course inspector, has been up three times recently and was very happy."

In an effort to make the best of the ground available, Wetherby have moved the four fences in the home straight to the inside of the course – on turf used by hurdlers last season – and two of them have been placed on what was part of the original course, leaving only two on the new ground.

That gives the option that, if the areas round those two fences are considered unraceable, they can be omitted, leaving seven fences rather than nine, but all on the original racecourse. Regulations allow courses to reduce the number of obstacles by up to 50 per cent and still continue to race.

Sanderson is determined that within another year Wetherby will be once again attracting entries from the top chasing yards in the country for feature races like the Bet365 Charlie Hall Chase in November and the Skybet Rowland Meyrick Chase and Skybet Castleford Chase at Christmas.

"I'm looking forward to the day when people are talking about the quality of racing at Wetherby, not the state of the ground," he said. In the meantime business is good. Every box and marquee has been sold for October 15 and bookings for the Charlie Hall meeting are encouraging.

"Our members have been fine," he added. "We have held our subscription rates at last year's level for new badge-holders and existing members have been given a discount rate which reflects the fact that they didn't get all their chasing last season."

So things might not yet be exactly as everyone would like, but with the new ground still a work in progress that is inevitable. One thing, though, is certain: the best horses in the business will soon be back at Wetherby, just like the old days.