Thank god for poly huh ?

In view of the deteriorating condition of the Scottsville track, Gold Circle has made the decision to move the racemeetings of Tuesday, 19 August, Tuesday, 26 August and Tuesday, 2 September to the Polytrack at Greyville.

That leaves four remaining racemeetings at Scottsville before the course will be closed for a major overhaul during the spring treatment period which is scheduled to commence on 15 September.

"Because of the various developments at Greyville last year, the Scottsville racecourse did not undergo its annual spring treatment in 2013 and as a consequence the track is now starting to show serious signs of wear and tear," said Gold Circle's Racing and Marketing Executive Graeme Hawkins.

"Apart from tomorrow's meeting (Tuesday, 5 August), we will retain the racemeetings of 13 August, 7 September and 14 September at the Pietermaritzburg track but the number of runners down the straight will be limited to 14, as a false rail will be erected to avoid racing on the extreme inside where the track condition is at its worst," added Hawkins.

"The Scottsville racemeetings of 7 September and 14 September are major fund raising charity days - hence our desire to stage these meetings there - but the possibility remains that these could also be changed if circumstances so dictate."

As the Polytrack caters for distances of up to 2000 metres, Gold Circle has added a MR 74 over 2400 metres to the programme on Sunday, 14 September, to compensate for the loss of a similar race on Tuesday 26 August.

Was going to start a thread but thought you would pick it up. This is one of the reasons for the polytrack. We wont loose a meeting and can still race!

Clairwood chickens coming back to roost just like those at Bloem and Newmarket have done before

Not an envious situation at all.Its ridiculous from a punters point of view.

Mr H, Clairwood was in a worse condition than Scottsville. Even though FFC and Threshold won they did not pull up well. Colours, talking to the jockeys the poly is the fairest track to race on. Horses winning from the front, back, inside and wide. If they good enough they will win and pulling up sounder than any other track.

Craig fair enough, but Natal has not one turf track on standard !! WTF??

Craig Eudey wrote: Was going to start a thread but thought you would pick it up. This is one of the reasons for the polytrack. We wont loose a meeting and can still race!

Great for trainers and owners but who really wants to bet on your rubbish Polytrack ? I cannot guess which horse will take/not take to the surface. The grass tracks at all the Natal courses should have been managed properly to start with. Judging by what we see of the all weather surfaces in the UK they are used for bread and butter meetings and scrap generally tend to race on them.

Enjoy the Natal scene. Race meetings should only ever be lost due to excessive rainfall not because tracks are badly maintained. Shame on Gold Circle they fucked us by selling Clairwood and now neither Greyville or Scottsville grass tracks are up to scratch and as you pointed out yesterday Craig, the Clairwood grass track was also in bad nick !

Can they manage anything properly ? I saw on Facebook that Jeff Lloyd said the tarring on the inside of the Poly is dangerous and he would never ride on it !

So we now have the mentality that we don't give a fuck. Why even bother to water the grass ? We can move it to the Poly ! Then we save three or four meetings a year that would have been washed out had it not been for the Poly and we think its a gift from god ?

All of Scottsville, Greyville and Clairwood have survived for yonks when the course managers never even dreamed of having the technology that the current managers have available to them.

Harris wrote:

Craig Eudey wrote: Was going to start a thread but thought you would pick it up. This is one of the reasons for the polytrack. We wont loose a meeting and can still race!

Great for trainers and owners but who really wants to bet on your rubbish Polytrack ? I cannot guess which horse will take/not take to the surface. The grass tracks at all the Natal courses should have been managed properly to start with. Judging by what we see of the all weather surfaces in the UK they are used for bread and butter meetings and scrap generally tend to race on them.

Enjoy the Natal scene. Race meetings should only ever be lost due to excessive rainfall not because tracks are badly maintained. Shame on Gold Circle they fucked us by selling Clairwood and now neither Greyville or Scottsville grass tracks are up to scratch and as you pointed out yesterday Craig, the Clairwood grass track was also in bad nick !

Can they manage anything properly ? I saw on Facebook that Jeff Lloyd said the tarring on the inside of the Poly is dangerous and he would never ride on it !

So we now have the mentality that we don't give a fuck. Why even bother to water the grass ? We can move it to the Poly ! Then we save three or four meetings a year that would have been washed out had it not been for the Poly and we think its a gift from god ?

All of Scottsville, Greyville and Clairwood have survived for yonks when the course managers never even dreamed of having the technology that the current managers have available to them.

That sums up the situation very well!

Harris, I am not defending the state of the grass at the tracks. They are not good at the moment. Greyville did have an excuse of sorts as for long time there was not irrigation due to the track works and you cannot have huge water tackers weighing tons riding on the grass. We loose around 8-10 meetings a year and being able to move to the poly will help both trainers and owners as you pointed out. It seems that the grass form is holding up pretty well on the Poly. PE can now do the same and maybe if Cape Town put one in they would not loose the meetings they do. The owners of mine that I have spoken to are all behind the polytrack. Clairwood, rightly or wrongly in different peoples eyes has gone. Accept it and crack on. No amount of moaning is going to bring it back. I for one am looking forward to the changes that the polytrack will bring. I am looking forward not backwards as doing that will not help one iota.

'' So we now have the mentality that we don't give a fuck. Why even bother to water the grass ? We can move it to the Poly ! Then we save three or four meetings a year that would have been washed out had it not been for the Poly and we think its a gift from god ?''

I can just about hear them thinking this

Craig we go back a long way and I rate you highly not only as a trainer but as a person too. I do not want to get into an argument with you. It is quite understandable that as a Natal based trainer you need to promote the region and stay loyal to the hierarchy.

I think you should just ask any racing person whether they would rather have a Greyville turf meeting or a Greyville Poly meeting ? I want to meet all those who opt for the latter.

Case closed.

Harris, we would prefer it if Greyville grass was in a perfect condition all the time as we could run 16 in each race. I am saying that that is now impossible so lets embrace the racing going forward. I still feel strongly that all will work out and racing will thrive here. Colours you don't really mean that do you. To not want to put water down is not what they are thinking.