I will preface this suggestion by stating that I had no bets today and only saw race 6 & 8 in Sydney.

Is there a place in racing for the use of artificial surfaces?

What I saw today was some sort of joke. I realise it happens all the time in Vic. etc and for that matter anywhere when it rains but it surely is a blight on the industry. When so many people owners, trainers, jockeys, punters invest so much money for it all to be thrown into even more chaos than usual just because it rains is not positive for racing.

I would like to know what people think about the pros/cons of an artificial surface. Does such a thing exist? Is it worthwhile investigating? What effects would it have?

thekey

The Strathair surface at M/Valley becomes a joke when it has been raining. They add sand onto it to stop it becoming slipery. Do horses perform as their formline suggests they should when having sand kicked in their face at race speed ?

Cheers.

crash,

do you no the make up of the track at mooneey valley compared to elsewhere? ie what is in the layers etc.

What I saw today was some sort of joke. I realise it happens all the time in Vic. etc and for that matter anywhere when it rains but it surely is a blight on the industry.

Hi TheKey,

this is purely a value judgement... it is your value judgement and you are entitled to it. While I certainly wouldn't want to see horses running around in dangerous situations, why is it that everything has to be homogenised and pasteurised to the point that it's all at the same, bland, non-changing state?

I for one don't mind a bit of mud flying around... I like the challenge of finding those mudlarks that seem to excel in those situations.... There are some very good horses around that can only run in the slow/heavy conditions, and watching them revel in their conditions is every bit as enjoyable as watching Lonhro run home... but only when I haven't bet against him!!! :smile:

Cheers,
Chris.

Key,

Apart from the sand [and the bias] at M/V, I don't know anything about ther actual construction of the surface except it was a hell of a lot of wasted money.

When they get around to Flemington, I hope they don't stuff that up.

Cheers.

I take the point about it being too standardised etc. but at at least you would avoid the farce that happened @ caul on wed.

Let's delay the meeting while we chop up the track so its not slippery! Now what is going to happen for saturday?

Would the meeting have been abandoned if it wasn't 3 days before their biggest meeting of the year?

If this scenario is good for racing could somebody please explain how?

Certainly it is no good for racing and harrowing the track is a last minute desperate measure to drain the water.

This should never have needed to be done given the rainfall over the last month, it is basically very very poor turf management.

Not only that the racing results will not be true with clods of mud flying hither and thither!

My feeling is that the internationals will just love it and our horses will be all at sea.

Just watch the results on Saturday.

Phoeee track manager!!! :razz: