V'landys lets rip against RV's dig over race tracks - yet still $100m allocated to NSW track upgrades! Geez what chance NZ?

[Chief Stipe]

Sydney's racetracks need upgrading YES or NO?

 

Article Author

Bruce Clark4:03PM22 March 2021

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Sydney’s racetracks at Randwick and Rosehill are perfectly fine and in no need of a rebuild. Is that a YES or NO?

 

Says me? No. It's actually what Racing NSW supremo Peter V’landys said in the wake of concerted criticism from many industry quarters and commentary from those pesky Mexicans in Victoria. Like me.

“Reports from Victoria regarding our tracks are the greatest act of desperation that I have seen, and it does not border on the ridiculous but has gone completely past it,” said V’landys pushing off the sightscreen and only building into stride.

“To use a once in a 100-year natural disaster as a platform to question our tracks is using opportunism to a level that is vile. There is no track in Australia that could have raced safely under those extreme conditions (Rosehill on Saturday).”

The tracks for Sydney’s carnival features were called into question as to long term sustainability again as the autumn carnival was pushed back a week after the deluge forced the Golden Slipper meeting to be rescheduled (the first time since Pago Pago in 1963).

Of the last 10 Golden Slipper days at Rosehill, only Capitalist, Vancouver and Pierro won on tracks rated good. She Will Reign won a heavy (10), Kiamichi and Mossfun on heavy (8), Farnan, Estijaab, Overreach and Sepoy all on variations of slow.

Take the Queen Elizabeth Stakes days at Randwick to close The Championships. Winx won two of her three on good (4) rated tracks, Reliable Man and More Joyous on a good (3). Addeybb and My Kingdom Of Fife got home on heavy (8), while before the first of Winx’s treble, Lucia Valentina, Criterion and It’s A Dundeel each were on soft tracks.

While Flemington sets an Australian benchmark from its 2006 renovation, and Caulfield and Moonee Valley have each been rebuilt in the new millennium with new profiles to handle wet weather, V’landys refuted any call to do the same in metropolitan Sydney where the older profiles of Randwick and Rosehill tend to hold water for longer.

The Australian Turf Club is so concerned about contingencies, such as losing race meetings to weather with their tracks that become un-raceable, they insure them. 

Footy grounds have been rebuilt over the years so we no longer see Norm Provan and Arthur Summons like vision of the mudheaps they played on. But Sydney’s premier racetracks have seen droughts and floods come and go with little more than haircuts and top dressing and a little tinkering rather than a remodelling.

And then, despite the carnival being pushed back a week there is little doubt the Golden Slipper will again be run on a significantly affected track and Randwick when it kicks in, most likely the same, despite improved weather conditions.

Sydney tracks simply don’t dry to the same degree as Melbourne’s as the weather turns and improves. So if you are in Sydney for the autumn, you virtually take it as a given that you will have to cop a soft track at some stage.

“The metropolitan tracks in Sydney, with the exception of Warwick Farm which is planned to have a significant rebuild, are perfectly fine and in no need of any major rebuild,” V’landys said.

“The drainage rate of over 100mm/hour is the right balance as any higher rate would create an imbalance with the tracks becoming too firm, along with an inability to retain adequate moisture and nutrients.

“We have an ongoing maintenance plan to ensure that the tracks are at their premium. It is not necessary to waste funds on a rebuild when we believe that our tracks have the right balance. In fact, high profile trainers tell us that the tracks in Sydney result in horses recovering much better post-race as they are not running on hard surfaces as is sometimes the case in Melbourne.”

Got it! 

“We, however, will never spend money to make people feel warm and fuzzy without any advanced outcome,” he said. Noting already $100m had been allocated by Racing NSW to training tracks and track upgrades.