Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 Um has anyone seen good turf growing on a beach? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 Obviously not enough sand in this profile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 Auckland Thoroughbred Racing chief confident in Ellerslie Racecourse track refurbishment www.nzherald.co.nz It will be the zenith of 22 meetings Ellerslie hosts next season, which means that getting the new StrathAyr surface right and consistent is crucial after a messy end to this season. Auckland Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Paul Wilcox is confident the surface will deliver on its earlier promise even though it got slippery after rain late on Karaka Million night in January and then two later meetings saw partial abandonments. Those teething problems saw ATR move one late-season meeting to Pukekoke so Ellerslie’s track renovation work could start earlier and horses returned to the home of Auckland racing for the first time on Monday. Six horses galloped in three pairs ridden by top jockeys Kennedy and Craig Grylls and both were happy with the surface, which the horses were able to get their hooves into rather than staying on top of. The inability for horses to always “get their toe in” to the new surface was a key reason, when combined with rain, why it became slippery in its initial season, albeit most meetings went off without a hitch. “Our team has done an enormous amount of work on the surface,” Wilcox says. “The top surface was broken right up to take the tension out of it and 450 tonne of sand was added, with that work to continue and another 350 tonne of sand to be added. “We have been working really closely with experts like Liam O’Keeffe, the track manager at Flemington, and Chris Hay from Elwick [Hobart, also a StraythAyr track] and they are both really confident we have got it right. “So Monday was an important first step and to hear Warren and Craig so happy was very satisfying. “We will have more gallops, jump-outs and then trials and, all going well, we will be back racing on September 21.” Ellerslie is in for a summer of such scale that most in the New Zealand racing industry are still struggling to get their heads around it. As well as Group 1 racing at Christmas, it will have the Karaka Million in late January, which next season will also include the Railway, moved from New Year’s Day and boosted to $600,000. Then looms Champions Day and New Zealand thoroughbred racing’s first slot race, the NZB Kiwi as the centrepiece of the strongest race meeting yet held in this country. “I know we really shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to another jurisdiction but to have a $9m race meeting [in its first year] puts Champions Day up there with Australia’s biggest racedays,” Wilcox says. “So we are very excited and Monday was one of the first steps toward all that.” Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 Why don't they just remove the grass and call it an AWT? Begs the question though - why didn't they get it right the first time? If you buy a Ferrari you expect to be able to drive it more than once. $55m was supposed to buy a premium track. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 8 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said: The inability for horses to always “get their toe in” to the new surface was a key reason, when combined with rain, why it became slippery in its initial season, albeit most meetings went off without a hitch. Wilcox used that explanation after the KM debacle and the "fix" after that was to remedy the "getting the toe in". An abandoment or two and closing the course plus 800 more tonnes of sand will fix the toe in. "Hunches all around me, so the feeling grows...." Where's MIA Sharrock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curious Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said: Wilcox used that explanation after the KM debacle and the "fix" after that was to remedy the "getting the toe in". An abandoment or two and closing the course plus 800 more tonnes of sand will fix the toe in. "Hunches all around me, so the feeling grows...." Where's MIA Sharrock? And the idea of racing in September without allowing time for the bulk of spring root development makes little sense to me given the history. Sounds so much like more of the same mistakes they made last year. Edited July 16 by curious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doomed Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 I thought that was a press release the club put out. Only at the end did I realise it was a newspaper article. "Albeit most meetings went off without a hitch". How many was that exactly? In for a summer of such scale most are struggling to get their heads around it. I surely thought that was part of a press release, but it was actually written by the journalist. Comparing themselves to the likes of Sydney and Randwick. Do they realise those clubs race most weeks of the year and right through the winter? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 23 minutes ago, Doomed said: "Albeit most meetings went off without a hitch". How many was that exactly? Pure spin. 23 minutes ago, Doomed said: In for a summer of such scale most are struggling to get their heads around it. I surely thought that was part of a press release, but it was actually written by the journalist. Marketing hyperbole at best. 50 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said: Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. Hasn't improved much in 33 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 52 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said: Those teething problems saw ATR move one late-season meeting to Pukekoke so Ellerslie’s track renovation work could start earlier and horses returned to the home of Auckland racing for the first time on Monday. That's incorrect. There has been more than one meeting transferred. One today at Pukekohe which is at least the second. Don't forget the calendar was readjusted as well. Which is a bit like rewriting or manufacturing your own evidence. Guerin has just taken the lazy journo approach and added a couple of paragraphs and name to a press release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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