Trojan

Yes and now they have their staff fighting a rear guard action on Facebook in response to recent concerns raised about the Synthetic Tracks.

I'm about to live stream Racing.com from Victoria.

They haven't thought through the economics of it all. When you focus on Grandstands you forget what the core business is. I couldn't care less what the paint work or wall paper was like in the stand as long as my horse was racing and training on a decent track.

Bounding was sold for $1.9m.

The Guineas will be under pressure to move North anyway as the track is stuffed. Ellerslie will initially be the winner but I'm guessing those with top 3yr olds will cross the ditch rather than race there.

Especially when Balcombe has already had 3 chances in direct roles to fix the Hastings problem!!!

Are you joking? His track record isn't that great pun intended. Why is Hastings the way it is? Some of his recent COO decisions have been questionable.

He mentioned "the we probably weighed in 2kg's heavy after the rain". With a downpour like that do the Jockey's clothes get heavier? If they do how does that work at weigh in?

That only happens in NZ! Why were the races abandoned at Moonee Valley last night?

Yes he can but it is to enable the fulfilling of commitments made on the day that was transferred. I just didn't know it applied to trials as well.

Warren Kennedy rode today because he had commitments from Saturday even though his disqualification started on Sunday. If that's the case then how did he get to ride at the Trials yesterday - surely there were no prior commitments for the trials? Then today he was stood down mid race meeting because of injury he had yesterday. That doesn't seem right.

It seems so AFTER he resigned!

When did he last turn up?

Being on course at Hastings yesterday from a very early hour - the fog and frost were still visible. I didn't see any suits inspect the track at any time. I doubt there were any penetrometer readings taken or any Stipe walking the track. From what I could see no horses galloped on the course proper prior to Race 1. There were quite a few horses worked on the inner track surfaces during the morning but none galloped on the grass. Are these things NOT standard practice?

MIA Sharrock - admits he knows nothing about wagering (core source of revenue) and would appear to know nothing about track maintenance, handicapping, or programming. Nor does he seem to have hired anyone who does.

But that hasn't happened for decades. They all thought increasing Stakes was the answer and building flash grandstands that had no way of paying their way. They ALL neglected the key aspect of racing - the Track! We are ALL guilty of not doing the work including YOU and I! In my opinion instead of spraying huge stakes increase around the place invest in fixing the tracks. Increase stakes sure but not by as much and certainly not on Sweepstake and Novelty races. There is a bit of that but that isn't the fundamental problem. Race tracks and training facility investment is what is needed.

But isn't it the same problem at ALL tracks essentially a lack of investment renovating and maintaining tracks over decades?

Are you talking about Trentham?

Helps if you produce a track to race on. Trentham - stuffed, New Plymouth - stuffed, Awapuni - yet to be tried after renovation, Otaki - not great....

The grass was a bit too long. At least 110mm.

The word is either most of the card will race Wednesday at Matamata or at the very least the two feature Group races for the scheduled meeting on Saturday.

The soil is stuffed. Ironically causes the same issue as Ellerlsie had with their new track.