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Bit Of A Yarn

all weather tracks


wally

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I see on 'another' site that people are saying one of the new tracks will be at Cambridge...are they meaning on the present training track property?  Isnt one of the reasons that we need new tracks is to provide a consistant racing surface...?   If thats the case is there another property somewhere in Cambridge to put a new track, stands, infrastructure on?  Does anyone know?

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Curious, you are probably the most read, about the technicalities of the different all weather/synthetic track types.

How about doing a summary for the good people on BOAY

What each type is, relative costs, pros and cons of each, who has each type of track

I've been under the impression that Strathayr is the standard, but perhaps not.

A point I thought relevant, if you are trying to sell it the people who have to pay for it, us.  Then to all intents and purposes, Strathayr is a turf track, no different in look to what we already have, whereas the other synthetics, look quite different

Thanks

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22 hours ago, hesi said:

Curious, you are probably the most read, about the technicalities of the different all weather/synthetic track types.

How about doing a summary for the good people on BOAY

What each type is, relative costs, pros and cons of each, who has each type of track

I've been under the impression that Strathayr is the standard, but perhaps not.

A point I thought relevant, if you are trying to sell it the people who have to pay for it, us.  Then to all intents and purposes, Strathayr is a turf track, no different in look to what we already have, whereas the other synthetics, look quite different

Thanks

I appreciate your confidence Hesi but I am no expert on synthetic tracks. I know a bit about Strathayr's, not much about the other synthetics except that most of those laid in the US have been torn up. Some pretty quickly. Go ahead organisations like Keeneland are willing to try things that seem innovative and sound but also willing to revert if they don't work, so are a good example. They did the same thing with takeouts last year, proved themselves wrong, and corrected promptly. http://www.drf.com/news/keeneland-rolls-back-some-takeout-increases-spring-meet

I don't understand why we are suddenly talking about synthetics here. I think they are a disaster waiting to happen but hopefully we'll get more info soon on what the plan is and the rationale.

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Thanks

You can see it is a disaster waiting to unfold, they will go with a synthetic track and it will be a disaster.

I have a scientific background, and my thoughts were that Strathayr made the most sense, in fact all the sense, but then a few have put up arguments against it, so I'm a bit lost

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10 minutes ago, hesi said:

Thanks

You can see it is a disaster waiting to unfold, they will go with a synthetic track and it will be a disaster.

I have a scientific background, and my thoughts were that Strathayr made the most sense, in fact all the sense, but then a few have put up arguments against it, so I'm a bit lost

Prior to the Cox Plate at Mooney Valley they race on a  Friday night..then the next day again. I've seen it piss down there overnight after the Friday races but the track is great the next day! Never a suggestion of abandoning...thats a Strathayr, so to me there is no question what NZ racing should get....but has anyone been asked for an opinion?

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8 minutes ago, Kopia said:

Prior to the Cox Plate at Mooney Valley they race on a  Friday night..then the next day again. I've seen it piss down there overnight after the Friday races but the track is great the next day! Never a suggestion of abandoning...thats a Strathayr, so to me there is no question what NZ racing should get....but has anyone been asked for an opinion?

Quite correct Kopia. They are an advanced form of turf track, altogether different from synthetics. That said, they rely on superior drainage for the type of performance you see at the likes of Mooney Valley. I'm not sure that will be feasible at some existing major NZ venues like Awapuni or Ellerslie which are built in swampy holes. Good for moisture retention and summer racing when established in pre-irrigation days, but now pretty much hopeless a lot of the year. Ideally, they'd seek out new venues for Strathayr's if they are economically feasible but I'm not aware of any feasibility studies having been done in NZ for them or any other type of AWT. As I said, I have no idea where this idea of synthetics has suddenly emerged from. Hopefully, we will all be enlightened shortly. If it had been up to me we would have been building a Strathayr every year or two for the last 15 years but NZTR in their wisdom chose to waste all their money on stakes and spend nothing on track infrastructure.

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I think there is no doubt about the need to move tracks in NZ to a a better track surface, as you have mentioned Curious, they should have been putting one in each year.

But a move to anything but a turf surface is a bridge too far, and could potentially be a total failure which the industry cannot afford to have happen

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59 minutes ago, hesi said:

I think there is no doubt about the need to move tracks in NZ to a a better track surface, as you have mentioned Curious, they should have been putting one in each year.

But a move to anything but a turf surface is a bridge too far, and could potentially be a total failure which the industry cannot afford to have happen

there is already dissent in Oz about the number of synthetic track meetings versus turf and nominations are down for synthetic. 

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35 minutes ago, hesi said:

Just to be clear, as you appear to have quite a bit of knowledge, I presume they do not class the Strathayr as synthetic.

Eagle Farm was Strathayr and went horribly wrong, anyone know why

Strathayr isn't a synthetic track it is a turf based SYSTEM.  The only "synthetic" aspect is the use of plastic mesh within the soil/root zone which provides artificial soil structure and stability.  Also aids drainage.

Eagle farm made a number of mistakes.  That is also a risk for NZ - do we have the expertise?  Probably not so we will have to import it.

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On 30/07/2018 at 12:01 AM, FeelTheFear said:
Kristen Manning @RacingPedigrees
FollowingFollowing @RacingPedigrees
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Kristen Manning Retweeted Anna Sutton

we've had one sold to Qld as no races for him in Vic, another spelling to recover from the stuff she inhaled on the synthetic; two others who have no suitable races for week. I am well and truly over the synthetic obsession.

NZ oulawed synthetic cannabis back in 2014

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