Synthetic tracks

[Pitman]

Great watch!

www.racing.com

after the last 6.8.18

Good enough for the Hawkes stable 

[Reefton]

Indeed a great watch Pitty.  Second time in two weeks Wayne Hawkes has had something interesting to say.  This time his mention of the fact that whenever they renovate turf tracls over there they cock it up as well.

On the synthetic tracks question there was a very relevant thing to be garnered and considered in making those calls.  Specifically the maintenance requirements of those tracks and following on the costs involved.  They noted the average turnovers on weekday meetings in Victoria in the range of $7.5m.  That strikes me as being able to fund a lot of track maintenance(as well as a lot of stakes!).  That is a terrible long way away from the NZ situation - I doubt there are many racedays in NZ that get within coo ee of that turnover let alone beat it.

Clearly this has to be handled bloody carefully.  I am not saying don't do it just be careful how you do it what you do it with and how you look after it.

[mardigras]

3 minutes ago, Reefton said:

They noted the average turnovers on weekday meetings in Victoria in the range of $7.5m.  That strikes me as being able to fund a lot of track maintenance(as well as a lot of stakes!).  That is a terrible long way away from the NZ situation - I doubt there are many racedays in NZ that get within coo ee of that turnover let alone beat it.

I would say none from memory. Not a Auckland Cup, Derby day or Wellington Cup day.

[curious]

I also noted that hat Wayne was primarily advocating for more better winter grass tracks in light of his experience with synthetics as a racing surface, and there also seemed to be a strong message that tracks and replacement tracks needed to be within 100kms of the horse population. In fact that all racing should primarily be within that sort of distance. There did seem to be general agreement that synthetics were a good training option but probably not justifiable where good well draining sand tracks were available.

[hesi]

https://www.racing.com/videos/2018-08-06/after-the-last--6818

[Reefton]

4 minutes ago, curious said:

I also noted that hat Wayne was primarily advocating for more better winter grass tracks in light of his experience with synthetics as a racing surface, and there also seemed to be a strong message that tracks and replacement tracks needed to be within 100kms of the horse population. In fact that all racing should primarily be within that sort of distance. There did seem to be general agreement that synthetics were a good training option but probably not justifiable where good well draining sand tracks were available.

Probably fair comment re the racing where the horses are Curious but don't say it too loud round here.

Having said that you clearly trade off on course attendance with racing near the horses in that scenario

[curious]

14 minutes ago, curious said:

I also noted that Wayne was primarily advocating for more better winter grass tracks in light of his experience with synthetics as a racing surface, and there also seemed to be a strong message that tracks and replacement tracks needed to be within 100kms of the horse population. In fact that all racing should primarily be within that sort of distance. There did seem to be general agreement that synthetics were a good training option but probably not justifiable where good well draining sand tracks were available.

 

[hesi]

Is NZ racing able to embrace something different, meaning anything other than turf tracks, leaving Strathayr as the only option

I just recall going back a few years, how night racing was tried at Avondale, and was a failure and ditched

[theshu]

Not a big fan of all weather tracks personally,i wont even look or bet at them.Just read a  article in a aussie racing forum and i do remember Bart Cummings saying they are  no good at all.You only take a horse to the synth if it’s no good. Horses that have raced on the synthetic, I won’t buy them. When Bart Cummings tells you that they are no good, you listen. When he stopped running and training horses on synthetic surfaces, his breakdown rate dropped 50%. You have a look at how many horses go there and then don’t measure up on the turf after that.

[Richie]

2 hours ago, theshu said:

Not a big fan of all weather tracks personally,i wont even look or bet at them.Just read a  article in a aussie racing forum and i do remember Bart Cummings saying they are  no good at all.You only take a horse to the synth if it’s no good. Horses that have raced on the synthetic, I won’t buy them. When Bart Cummings tells you that they are no good, you listen. When he stopped running and training horses on synthetic surfaces, his breakdown rate dropped 50%. You have a look at how many horses go there and then don’t measure up on the turf after that.

Yep I read that too,it is pretty well known that horses don't really back up that well from synthetic to turf.In fact I think Bart also said at one stage that after racing on synthetic a few times  he ended up having to give a lot of horses a spell because of soreness