THE Salisbury executive are enlisting a soil expert to prevent a recurrence of the beetle related infestation that wreaked havoc with last week's fixtures.

Tuesday's card had to be abandoned and the second on Friday modified with racing confined to the straight mile on the figure of nine track.

Minute chafer bugs, which thrive on the root system of grass, had caused the surface on a section of the loop to become loose, thereby endangering both and rider.

The damage was discovered when course supremo Jeremy Martin made his routine early morning inspection on Tuesday and was stunned to see three patches of infestation about two metres square at the bottom of the hill.

There was no possibility of the area being dolled off for runners to pass and the three races that would have used it were cancelled. Brief hopes of running the remaining five races were impractical.

The situation was closely monitored and satisfied the problem had not spread, Friday's card went ahead with half of Tuesday's card being transferred.

"I have been here 18 years and never had a problem like this," said Martin. "I am just so very pleased that we were able to race today," he said after the twilight programme.

Salisbury have one fixture left this season - October 3 - and racing again will only be staged on the straight mile, resulting in the loss of the valuable Persian Punch named in hour of the great stayer owned by the course chairman Jeff Smith.

Meanwhile an agronomist will meanwhile examine the extent of the damage and take measures to prevent the bugs from laying their eggs in May which coincides with the start of their 2019 season.