Chief Stipe

Whose opinion? The new track manager or the old caretaker?

You are clutching at straws using Trentham as an example!!! Most tracks have long straights! The majority of those racing at Trentham chasing Premier races are travelling and need an overnight stay! From what I can tell they all stay overnight in the Manawatu region. Hastings is a perfect location though - everyone travels roughly the same distance except those trained on course. Seriously though would shifting Woodville to Hawera for a BM65 race change your mind?

No the issue is the obsession with laying large amounts of sand on top. The only way to have a turf that is truly conducive to galloping is to make sure that the sand:clay:silt:organic matter ratios are optimum for water retention (mimimise irrigation requirements vs optimise drainage) and nutrient retention. I suspect the Ellerslie track will improve as time progresses relative to the amount of mown grass that is left in situ on the track that is then incorporated into the top layer of the track. However that will be a long process and relatively uncontrollable e.g. it is dependent on even mowing for a start. The same process will happen at Awapuni. I've been thinking about what would be the best way to fix Hastings (cambers aside). You will move all the track soil off to the centre of the track. Put in a layer of drainage gravel and new layer of drains, another layer to limit the loss of soil particles (reduce clogging of drains) and then replace the reconditioned top soil. The top soil would be reconditioned to have the optimum sand:clay:silt:organic matter ratios for the local climate. I thought that this was what the normal Strathayr (not the pure sand version) was about with the addtion of artifical mesh to provide structure. A track reconditioned like I suggest would have a limited life which could be extended by yearly maintenance. A track like Matamata survives (as does most of the Waikato) because naturally it has a high organic matter content and possibly more silt than clay. Silt is closer to sand in terms of drainage properties. My brief looks at the Hastings turf suggests it has a high clay content and the organic content is minimal hence the emergence of slipping issues.

Most training centre's worth their salt do cater for "reverse" galloping. If they don't then their trainers will be disadvantaged as all roads point to the Ellerslie gold don't they?

Why does it matter where a meeting will be held?

With regard to Ellerslie to make it clear you are referring to the people brought in AFTER the new track was reopened. The bigger question is who advised Ellerslie to make the choices they did in the first place? BTW the irony doesn't escape me that the powers that be are focussing on the camber of the track at Hastings yet Ellerslie seems to be immune from criticism about the camber of the final bend into the straight on the new track. I guess because it is an iconic camberless bend.

Why? Isn't the important information the meeting programme and date?

What's the Hastings caretakers opinion? I assume it isn't the new track manager you are referring to.

Ok. Was a bit ambiguous in the press release. But I was probably just reading it wrong!

To be fair I was exaggerating. Probably a third are life members who joined in the 60's and 70's.

At least two thirds of the 403 are Life Members.

Central Districts get vote of confidence from racing bosses - NZ Herald www.nzherald.co.nz KEY FACTS The troubled Awapuni turf track will undergo intensive work in the hope of being ready for a return to racing in August. If all goes well the Palmerston North-based track will hold two Group 1s this spring. The Hastings track will be re-cambered with the plan to have it back hosting race meetings in spring 2026. The immediate future of two of New Zealand’s most important race tracks became at least a little clearer yesterday. And both clarifications are good news for the embattled Central Districts region. It has been a brutal year for the proud racing region with Awapuni’s turf track closed for renovations while Hastings has been on ice since an abandoned meeting in September brought long-running issues with their track to a head. Things got worse on Anzac Day when the Awapuni relaunch lasted one race before that meeting was called off for the usual reason: a slippery surface making racing unsafe. Add to that long-term doubts about the sustainability of the remaining Trentham grandstand and Ōtaki losing its only Group 1 to Ellerslie and good news has been hard to come by in the lower half of the North Island. But help, or at least the promise of help, is on the way. New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing have backed the new Awapuni track by scheduling two Group 1s to be run there in the spring, if the track can come up to scratch by then. That IF has to be in capital letters as NZTR chief executive Matt Ballesty has made it clear the track must prove itself first and any sign of trouble that threatens the Group 1s will see an alternate venue found. The two races are the Arrowfield Stud Plate and the Livamol, traditionally the second and third legs of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown. With Hastings out of play for the spring (more on that soon) the three Group 1s it usually holds will be split between Ellerslie for the first, the Tarzino Trophy, with the next two legs tentatively at Awapuni. “Subject to a visit from track expert Liam O‘Keefe in early June we intend to run the two Group 1s in that region,” Ballesty told the Herald. “However, if the track isn’t exactly where it needs to be and more time is needed we won’t rush and we will look at other options. “NZTR understands all participants, especially trainers, need to know in advance where the races are to be held.” While the move is hardly the most boisterous vote of confidence in Awapuni being up and running by spring, NZTR are bringing in the big guns in Flemington track man O‘Keefe, who helped Ellerslie smooth out their problems when they launched their StrathAyr track last year. Like Ellerslie, one of the key Awapuni issues has been compaction of the top layer, making it prone to becoming slippery, so it will need constant verti-draining to break up that level and create more organic matter, ultimately providing a more natural surface. But one of Awapuni’s issues is rocks underneath the surface which limits the use of certain verti-draining machines. There will be weekly management meetings between the local administration body RACE, NZTR, O‘Keefe and fellow track expert Callum Brown. If that all goes well racing is scheduled to return to the turf track in August with Ballesty saying, “a safe return to racing is our number one priority”. So while nothing is certain in the increasingly weird world of race track management, NZTR are at least giving Awapuni and those who run it the chance to prove themselves. The second piece of good news for the region came in Hastings last night when Ballesty announced racing will remain at the current track with recambering work to start soon. The Hastings track has been dogged by problems in recent years, admittedly not helped by erratic spring weather, but one of its biggest issues has been the camber on the bend out of the straight. There has been debate about whether it is better to fix the current track or look to build a new track in the Hastings region, but Ballesty answered that question when addressing club members last night. “We will start work on correcting the camber on the track and all going well hope to have it ready for racing in spring 2026,” he said. That is a far quicker, and cheaper, option than moving the track in what is a famous racing region and all going well Awapuni and Hastings could be racing, on safer surfaces, in the New Year.

Then what? The only incompetence I can see is a reluctance to once again commit enough funding to fix the fundamental track issues. You WERE part of that problem. Perhaps they have been hijacked by the rabble rouser Colin Wightman (aka @Transparency ) - he is on public record saying there is nothing wrong with the Hastings track that couldn't be fixed in a week! Then you have Jockey's like Kate Hercock saying the problem last September was a lack of irrigation on the track. Are you saying that more or less is needed to be done to the Hastings track? Or are you just intent on scapegoating? NZTR haven't been "putting this crap out for decade". I gather from the tone of you post that you do honestly believe there is a problem with the track. In your opinion what is that problem? I find it hard to work out what camp you sit in other than the one that is angry and intent on blaming anyone they can find.

Bend or Bends?! Correct me if I'm wrong but there is only one bend leaving the straight. Also haven't there been abandonments because of slipping not just on the home straight exit i.e. on other parts of the track? The cambering isn't the only problem on that bend though - drainage and soil compaction also. Probably no money. But I suspect it was a leadership issue. Not that it matters.

Perhaps I didn't. But you obviously don't either. I guess the difference between you and I is I'm willing to learn. Your choice to remain ignorant.

What's the point if there is no chance of making a profit? What business cases? It was clearly evident that NO business case was done for the Awapuni or Riccarton AWT's. If they had done one they'd know that at the current levels of income for the two locations there was no chance of earning enough to maintain them correctly unless there was a substantial increase in the number of resident horses using the facilities. I would suggest that the total lack of business planning and financial modelling has got us into the shyte we see ourselves in now. I agree 100% but if no part of the industry can make enough money from racing thoroughbreds to maintain the tracks that they race on and provide training facilities and stabling that is safe then it is a lost cause.

Yes if you look at the financials of Foxton it only breaks even with grants.

I didn't say they were. I was just offering an explanation why some Clubs have managers (other than track workers) and others don't.

Core horse activity must come first. Otherwise you have a substantial area of land that produces zero income.

For EVERY track. For example over a $100k at Foxton and they don't have an event centre or hospitality venues. Other than the hot dog and coffee stand. You can't rely anymore on members having either the knowledge or the time or the training to pitch up and work on a race track. Time we all thought about sustaining the infrastructure professionally.

Assuming the $100m estimate is accurate. Even so the industry needs to make the decisions based on business cases and the potential for a track to contribute revenue from core horse activity.

It was originally designed to provide an easy repeatable method of determining the CBR (California Bearing Ratio) value of road material which is a measure of its strength. Strength being a description of compaction. The first version of the Clegg Hammer was developed by Dr. Baden Clegg in Australia and was named ‘The Clegg Impact Soil Tester’ (Figure 3). It was first introduced at the 8th Australian Road Research Conference in 1976 [6]. Since then, it has been widely used in Australia and Europe. It is currently manufactured in the United States (Table 1) and is being used by consultants and contractors in several compaction control applications and particularly in the compaction testing of sports fields. The Clegg Hammer is similar to many other soil compaction measuring devices in that it does not provide direct readout of soil density or soil moisture values like the NDG. It monitors soil strength-stiffness after the application of impact force on the soil. However, the output of the device provides a measure of soil densification and it can be successfully used when it is calibrated to compaction efforts and moisture conditions for various soil types. It does NOT directly measure sheer which is important for horse racing. So in terms of the AWT's it measures the degree of compaction of the poly-fill. If the track has been groomed correctly then this should be the same every meeting assuming that the moisture levels are the same. In my opinion temperature during the 4 hours of a meeting wouldn't have much impact. clegg-hammer.pdf

Well the chickens are roosting now. For example where are Hastings and Trentham going to get the capital from to improve their track? Ellerslie sold their hill. The only source of funds in the next 3 years will be from the diversion of ENTAIN funding from stakes to infrastructure. So as I keep pointing out the Central Districts needs to look at the business cases for each and every Club. If you were looking at Clubs that have potential for growth and to develop sources of revenue other than holding racedays then you'd back Hastings over Trentham.

This is a different Study to the one you first posted. It compared 3 temperatures - you'd expect the frozen surface i.e. zero degrees to be harder than the 40 degree one. Surface functional properties were quantified for samples of the UK all-weather racetrack surfaces (n = 6) under three controlled operational temperatures (0 °C, 20 °C and 40 °C) Also the change in firmness occurred from compaction as 3 tests were done in the same spot. That could be an argument for grooming more regularly. Findings were individual to each track, indicating that properties specific to the surface material such as fibre type, sand morphology, age and wax composition all play a role in the surface's response. My interpretation of the results is - the lower the temperature the firmer the track. At higher temperatures the track is softer but more susceptible to compaction. 31948 ViewPageProof_YBENG_3047.pdf

The hypothesis may be true but the study in my opinion was flawed and doesn't prove a correlation between time and temperature. It involved the comparison of races (in the afternoon) and fast work (in the morning) over a 42 day period. So the lower temperature times were presumably "fast work" times. It isn't clear in the study how they normalised the data or accounted for confounding factors. Yes as I posted before I read your response temperature can affect the wax in the poly profile however significant advances have occurred in the last 15 years since the study. Not that I've seen the formula but it is possible that the type of waxes and sand/artificial fibre ratios used vary between the 3 AWT's in NZ.