Drain the Swamp! Abandon Awapuni.

[Chief Stipe]

When it comes to Awapuni racing, the answer lies in the soil

i.stuff.co.nz

Peter Lampp is a sports commentator and former sports editor based in Palmerston North.

OPINION: So now we know why the Awapuni racecourse has been controversially shut down by NZ Thoroughbred Racing after the track was deemed unsafe.

One of New Zealand's top three training-racing centres, it's only open for training.

A review has put it down to years of neglect and band-aiding in which the track soil has been allowed to be severely compacted instead of being aerated and cored and the irrigation system was inadequate.

It took only four days after the meeting on December 10 was abandoned following race one to discover the problem, one that will inflict financially on the Race group and its six constituent racing clubs.

READ MORE:
* Multi-million-dollar funding confirmed for Awapuni racecourse
* Synthetic racing tracks would cushion horses and the racing industry
* Record rainfalls unlikely to stop Saturday racing at Riccarton and Trentham

There should have been no excuse with the NZ Sports Turf Institute on Awapuni's doorstep at the back of Massey University.

Its experienced agronomist, Brendan Hannan, was at home watching the December 10 race and after the abandonment he was at Awapuni within the hour.

A horse slipped at the 50-metre crossing to the new synthetic track at the 1300-metre mark.

The horses had to stride from the main grass track onto the wax-sand fabric of the synthetic chute and then back onto grass.

Soil samples taken there below 20 to 25mm were found to be visibly drier than in the top 25mm.

The combination of a thin wetter layer at the surface after watering or rain, which couldn't drain away, brought the risk of slipping.

 

 

Moisture meter readings taken from where the horse slipped showed it was 26% drier than other parts of the track and as high as 37.3% elsewhere.

Throw in the unwieldy, tired and inconsistent irrigation system, in fact four systems now a new one services the synthetic track, which has been watering four soil profiles on the course.

And yet the track manager at Race's other venue at Trentham can press a button at home to turn on the one irrigation system, which is what Awapuni has planned.

While there's a clamour for heads to roll, the first priority is to prevent jockeys and horses rolling.

 

Race chief executive Tim Savell has been in the hot seat for little more than a year.

He came out of speedway where meets are cancelled after a few drops of rain, but didn't expect it in racing.

The buck stops with the chief executive of course, but he must rely on the turf crew and there is much blurring, publicly anyway, about who is responsible.

Decades back, the old caretakers spent a lifetime working on the country's tracks and had innate experience, whereas now a lot of new staff have come in to the industry.

NZ Thoroughbred Racing's Darin Balcombe, a former Awapuni general manager and Te Kawau and Whanganui rugby player, confirmed Awapuni had been put on notice after the showery November 11 meeting was abandoned after two races because of ''shifty'' underfoot conditions.

And yet there was a repeat in December and the course had been closed since.

Savell said of all the courses in New Zealand needing care and attention, Awapuni would've been top of the list.

The lucrative Boxing Day races went to Ōtaki, but at a cost because it's not a Race venue.

Nor is the closest, at Woodville, whereby the way they don't irrigate. Two other Race meetings have since gone to Trentham.

Intensive work was finished on the Awapuni troublespots this week, coring and verti-draining, and while the February meeting is unlikely, the good news is that the big Sires Produce Stakes meeting on April 1 might go ahead at Awapuni.

A set of trials will have to be raced there before that.

From May 7 through to October 12 there will be nine race days on the synthetic track.

The entire main grass course was to be renovated from this month, but because contractors are unavailable, that won't now start until October and might take a year, impacting heavily on meetings.

Race has listed alternative venues for 15 meetings with the 2024 Boxing Day bonanza potentially to be run at New Plymouth.

NZTR withholds paying meeting fees to clubs that fail to provide a safe racing surface as it did to Awapuni in December.

Awapuni has history, meetings abandoned in 2009, 2011 and December 2016 after a week in which 39mm of rain fell with lush wet grass on top of a dry base. Same story.

The 600-metre turn at Manawatū has given Manawatū problems for at least six years and jockeys said the horses were moving there in the December race.

With health and safety paramount, the liability falls back on racing clubs and the jockeys call the day.

As recently as December 30 the NZ Jockeys' Association wrote to Race saying ''the jockeys have no confidence in the Awapuni track''.

[Freda]

Well, I stand to be corrected, as always, but it seems to me that the advice given by the NZSTI isn't worth the paper it is written on...or the digital comparative.

[Special Agent]

All these state of the art training facilities yet I heard Mike Breslin say he took horses to Foxton for a "grass gallop".  So not only the Awapuni race day course proper munted, nowhere to train a galloper to gallop on grass, which is sort of necessary with the AWT not in raceday operation yet.

[Freda]

6 minutes ago, Special Agent said:

All these state of the art training facilities yet I heard Mike Breslin say he took horses to Foxton for a "grass gallop".  So not only the Awapuni race day course proper munted, nowhere to train a galloper to gallop on grass, which is sort of necessary with the AWT not in raceday operation yet.

State of the art...hmmm...just have a look at some other jurisdictions and the facilities on offer there, both public and private.  We have fallen off the ladder so far it's embarrassing.  And we 'pin' our notions of modern technology by ruining a portion of what we have [  well tended grass surfaces ]  that do actually work, and rushing to install second-rate systems.

The most successful jurisdiction around, NSW in Aus, won't hear of synthetic racing.  Ok for an additional training aid, but nowhere [ that I am aware ] removes the grass option as a result.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Freda

[Joe Bloggs]

The anecdote ''fools abound'' well, it's no anecdote when it comes to stuffing tracks.

Here on the Gold Coast yesterday we had farcical scenes, firstly the traffic, lets talk traffic, the Gold Coast holiday season is in full swing, so the GCTC do not have police on point duty, the traffic was like the Santa Monica freeway on a wet Friday night, well dressed ladies and gentlemen were alighting from their Ubers and limos a kilometre or more from the course, and in rain had to trudge through puddles to reach their destination, the traffic was gridlocked for hours.

I saw horse floats caught and could only imagine the late arrivals, as the meeting was abandoned this info won't reach the mainstream press, and boy were there lots of mainstream press for this hyped meeting.

I was lucky, I dropped the Bloggs lady at Southport golf club and off she trudged, still positive and excited by thoughts of the hype, colour and of course the bubbles awaiting just a km or so away her umbrella raised in salute to the rain gods and glide in her stride, pep in her step.

I arrived home and turned on the tele to see the news jockeys were consulting with stewards as the meeting was in doubt. We only live 15 min away, we had bugger all rain during the night and dribs and drabs across the morning so I was dumbfounded by the news.

I couldn't raise the Bloggs lady, her phone was off line, I learned later there was no internet on-course, the multitude/throng/crowd was so immense the coverage was saturated and collapsed. Making a few inquiries with fellow non racegoers it was established the 'wet patch' at the 350m mark was the culprit, the cause for the abandonment, a rogue sprinkler you see, and the course curator had irrigated as no rain of significance was forecast, all the rogue sprinklers fault.

Now, after viewing the drone coverage and stewards film of J Mac's horse slipping in the 2nd race, it was a no brainer the meeting needed to be called.

The stewards panel headed by Josh Adams eventually allowed the jockeys to call for a secret ballot, [ideal] and the meeting was canned.

The track was due to be uprooted tomorrow and the complete revival undertaken with maybe a resumption of racing post August, all well and good, but how would you like to be paying training fees above $130 a day to a trainer with no grass tracks for 8 months? horses will need to be floated up to Beaudesert about an hour away to a track that is about as good as Bulls racecourse, or maybe Tauherenikau, and the only tracks to work on at GCTC are a new poly track, [jury's out] and the Kenny Russell a 1000m around sand track.

There has not been a B grass for some time due to the damage caused by the laying of said poly. The winners trained at the GCTC by club trainers are drying up fast, real fast and shortly it may well be a drought!

Annabel Neasham lasted 5 min at the track before bolting to Eagle Farm, did she foresee the joke evolving? I'm guessing yes, Australia's arguably best trainer for decades DL Freedman is training the odd winner, a small team these days, but Waller/Team Edmonds/Heinrich/Kelly etc are wallowing by their lofty standards.

Some of the above are training winners across the border or at b class country meets with prize money equal to NZ, in some cases less, and at the training fees mentioned hardly plausible or financially sustainable for owners with high priced yearlings in many cases.

The management team at GCTC are struggling, one we shall excuse as he suffered a serious illness mid season, but  we tend to put the boot in to NZ admin when the high profile AQUIS and Gerry Harvey backed club performs like a struggling outback track.....all of course supported by a team of sycophants big enough to choke an elephant.

The weather forecast for late in the week is questionable, if it rains, its going to be a financial disaster for the club, not so Katie Page's husband who is creaming it 100m across the road at the wankfest AKA magic millions, where it's stuff of dreams....or more than likely, ...where dreams are stuffed!

Just saying

Joe.

[curious]

1 hour ago, Freda said:

Well, I stand to be corrected, as always, but it seems to me that the advice given by the NZSTI isn't worth the paper it is written on...or the digital comparative.

Why do you say that? It seems to me they are the only ones that seem to know what they are talking about and doing albeit may be need some guidance from real horsepersons. Don't think much if any of their advice has been implemented has it?

Edited January 14, 2023 by curious

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Freda said:

 

The most successful jurisdiction around, NSW in Aus, won't hear of synthetic racing.  Ok for an additional training aid, but nowhere [ that I am aware ] removes the grass option as a result.

We could certainly teach NSW a thing or two. Just wait until they start poaching some of our top administrators.

[nod]

I think the guidelines for track preparation may have a bearing. Long grass and irrigation are not a good coupling        

Short grass would be better

And there are far too many meetings at the same venue -not a problem in the old days when mowing was by a flock of sheep and there were plenty of courses.

[Freda]

2 hours ago, curious said:

Why do you say that? It seems to me they are the only ones that seem to know what they are talking about and doing albeit may be need some guidance from real horsepersons. Don't think much if any of their advice has been implemented has it?

Evidence, C.  Evidence. 

They have been advising NZTR/track managers for some time I believe, so, either the advice is flawed, or it is not being followed.

[curious]

38 minutes ago, Freda said:

Evidence, C.  Evidence. 

They have been advising NZTR/track managers for some time I believe, so, either the advice is flawed, or it is not being followed.

OK. I didn't know they'd been involved prior the December 2021 Trentham abandonment when I thought NZTR decided they needed independent advice.

[Assange]

As a matter of interest, how much money has been spent on the all weather track?

[Huey]

1 hour ago, Assange said:

As a matter of interest, how much money has been spent on the all weather track?

$12-15m I believe on each one, plenty of money in nzracing so no problem if the dam thing never gets used.

[Special Agent]

That's just the start of it.

Most clubs will not be able to afford the upkeep and the complete replacement in so many years.