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Bit Of A Yarn

Doomben Track


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We avoided Doomben yesterday, we live 10 min from the track, we went down to Gold Coast instead, however they had rain early morning on the coast [1 hour drive from Brizzie] and after noon rain at Doomben.......the track is not in good shape at Doomben, because of the drama's at Eagle Farm Doomben has to take the work load and is not coping.......a filly broke her leg in the Sires after putting her hoof in a hole.....the jocks put their foot down and so the rail was moved out......the last was run in near darkness, this can't go on.......luckily, there are two wonderful tracks to take over if need be.....the Gold Coast races nearly 50 times are year.......it's a magic surface to take that load...and the Sunshine Coast, only one hour up the highway.....finger crossed for the rest of the carnival.

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When I think of Doomben Chief De Beers springs to mind he won 20 races all at Doomben including two Doomben 10,000s ironically he was trained at Eagle Farm go figure I recall him carrying the grandstand one day 64 65kgs from memory horses for courses the Chief definitely had an affinity with Doomben

Speaking of Eagle Farm scheduled to resume racing there December

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23 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

There's a lesson for NZ in the botched redevelopment of Eagle Farm's track.

ANY track they touch here they cock up Chief.  I challenge anyone to name an NZ track that has been 'renovated' and not needed years to settle down(in some cases they never have).

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37 minutes ago, Reefton said:

ANY track they touch here they cock up Chief.  I challenge anyone to name an NZ track that has been 'renovated' and not needed years to settle down(in some cases they never have).

Definitely a worry even if they do find the money for a Strathayr or two. I assume Reefton has managed to find a tractor and plough now and then?

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4 hours ago, curious said:

Definitely a worry even if they do find the money for a Strathayr or two. I assume Reefton has managed to find a tractor and plough now and then?

Reefton has a couple of farmers (and bloody good ones too at that) Peter and Ken O'Malley who know what they are doing.  But really I don't mean ploughing a track and resowing - I mean rebanking and drainage and generally playing hell - never works(at least initially)

I remember when our track was hammered by the Trotters (with only a week between meetings) - the O'Malleys decided on a twelve ton vibrating road roller next morning.  The track was bare by the time of the meeting but a least it was flat.  It was sitting there a few days later when Mr Foskett happened by - he knew what it would have been used for and shook his head.

Having said that it is easy when you race once a year and in the middle of summer.  It must be bloody hard to even get motivated when the temperature is 6 degrees and you have a midweek industry meeting to look forward to(the tenth this season) 

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27 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

What I the O'Malley policy on paddock rotation?

How long between drinks do they cultivate and resow a paddock?

From memory probably every five years(I am talking the track here not their farm paddocks.  Peter is a dairy farmer now - well his boy has taken over and has gone dairying - and I think they resow a lot more frequently)

But it all depended how much of a hammering the track got(given the trotters run around twice a year and us once).  If it has a golden run like it has the last couple of years it might last ten years - if there is a  run of wet days(I know it will surprise contributors but it has been known to rain here on the Coast) it might be one year.

How long is a piece of string essentially.

 

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Reefton get a lot of use out of a spiker machine we have to aerate the track.  I have an idea Moncur's mob might even have assisted with funding.  Does a good job anyhow but the trotting boys really do the track work - I live 50 miles away and am more into making smart arse comments and stirring up the authorities than getting my hands too dirty too often.

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And I might say further that Gary Foskett has always been very good for us to deal with.  If he could help he would and didn't lay the law down too often.  He gets shiite bagged out of him on racing chat sites but I would hate the bloody job.  As for Andrew Mehrtens talking about improvements in turf in the last 25 years let a team of 600kg nags rip around a couple of times and see how Eden Park or AMI handles it 

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Now I know that I am setting myself up for target practice but this is my experience:

About 8 years ago lateral drains every 5 metre were laid at Trentham. The drains were topped with sand. Do they call that sand slitting? I don’t know!

Anyway, for the next three years it didn’t seem to have made much difference!

However since then the whole soil structure has had a chance to restructure as it is  no longer totally waterlogged for six months! 

The result is that 8 year down the track it is by far the best surface in NZ, as we have all seen over the last four years. 

Even last Saturday after a heap of rain, while it was heavy it played super. 

Did you see anyone heading to the outside fence. 

I rest my case!

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1 hour ago, Dark Beau said:

Now I know that I am setting myself up for target practice but this is my experience:

About 8 years ago lateral drains every 5 metre were laid at Trentham. The drains were topped with sand. Do they call that sand slitting? I don’t know!

Anyway, for the next three years it didn’t seem to have made much difference!

However since then the whole soil structure has had a chance to restructure as it is  no longer totally waterlogged for six months! 

The result is that 8 year down the track it is by far the best surface in NZ, as we have all seen over the last four years. 

Even last Saturday after a heap of rain, while it was heavy it played super. 

Did you see anyone heading to the outside fence. 

I rest my case!

Riccarton a bit the same. Still a bog at times, but many a horse still win on the inside. 

I remember a few years back, everyone headed for select strip out wide, not so much now. 

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2 hours ago, Dark Beau said:

Now I know that I am setting myself up for target practice but this is my experience:

About 8 years ago lateral drains every 5 metre were laid at Trentham. The drains were topped with sand. Do they call that sand slitting? I don’t know!

Anyway, for the next three years it didn’t seem to have made much difference!

However since then the whole soil structure has had a chance to restructure as it is  no longer totally waterlogged for six months! 

The result is that 8 year down the track it is by far the best surface in NZ, as we have all seen over the last four years. 

Even last Saturday after a heap of rain, while it was heavy it played super. 

Did you see anyone heading to the outside fence. 

I rest my case!

 

1 hour ago, Newmarket said:

Riccarton a bit the same. Still a bog at times, but many a horse still win on the inside. 

I remember a few years back, everyone headed for select strip out wide, not so much now. 

For all that (and I am not arguing with either of you) doesn't it get harder and harder each year to get enthusiastic about winter racing?

There is a malaise in the industry and we seem to be more downbeat every season when the tracks turn to shiite. 

 

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37 minutes ago, Reefton said:

 

For all that (and I am not arguing with either of you) doesn't it get harder and harder each year to get enthusiastic about winter racing?

There is a malaise in the industry and we seem to be more downbeat every season when the tracks turn to shiite. 

 

For many years, we had a wonderful crop of Winter gallopers, particularly at Trentham and then the Winter Cup, even Te Rapa when it used to be a bog in Winter, dare I say it, even Ellerslie, that we looked forward to.  The Cornwall, Taumarunui Cup, Parliamentary and Whyte were iconic races

Those days probably ended about 10 years ago

 

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