Thank god for poly huh ?

Why not just get the bloke who looks after the Summerveld grass track to take over the two main racetracks LOL.......the Summerveld one looks rather good...

Craig, sorry bud lol, you really need to get your head round this...

1. For me, and the impression I have from many others over a 30 year punting period and having had the experience of the Poly in the UK for many years, is that the racing public would much prefer to watch turf racing than Poly racing. If you want to keep the punters you have and then increase those numbers then it won't be through Poly racing imo. I try to be as honest as the day is long, and I wish all trainers, jocks and owners well and that they make big sums etc, but you really think I am going to continue to bet on something I don't particularly enjoy watching? The returns etc for all the people you speak of is not the point, why would I give a sh1t ultimately about what they earn from the game? As I say, I wish them well but at the end of the day, I do it for entertainment and hopefully personal profit, not so others profit from something I don't particularly like! The point is surely that the time will come much quicker where there is no such thing as horse racing the more that meetings are held on Poly rather than turf. My opinion.

2. The emphasis here should not be on what the Poly does, it should be on ensuring the turf tracks are made raceable (or better!!!) and kept that way and that people are made accountable if that is not done. Or are you saying, you would be happy to finish with turf racing and have all races including the Met, July etc on Poly? I fear, with your no doubt well-meaning approach, that is where it will end up. Sad sad day if so and I will have left horse punting well before it happens.

Hope they having a look at the UK tracks on show today

This was sent to my mail box today


Hi Bob

As I have no real intention of posting regularly, I am sending this mail to you. You may do with it what you wish.

In this debate I agree 110% with Louis Goosen.

To take this subject a bit further, Phumelela have closed the Fairview grass track for couple of months on the pretext of "....Fairview has had a very cold winter and the track is kicking up...."

What utter Bull****. I have lived in Port Elizabeth most of my life and this winter, except for a few really cold days has been a warm and mild winter. There has been VERY LITTLE of the frost that they are talking about and it's just a case of the course managers being too lazy or too incompetant or both - nothing more nothing less.

A small saving grace (if there is one) is that the Fairview poly can accomodate 16 horses whereas the Greyville poly 10 -12 only.Who wants to race with 10 or 12 horses in a race?. Good lord it's bad enough putting up with jump races in the UK containing 3 or 4 horses at times and the incessant stream of Donkey cart races so SA does not need a poly track with fields of 12 max (in good times) - they can stick it up their goompa. So to answer another question YES I would always want to race on grass.

Have a read of what the Sporting Post has to say about the closing of Clairwood. These money grabbers running (ruining?) racing are a disgrace.

Regards

Wayne Fouche

HI Englander, firstly I do prefer the turf racing as that to me is the pure form but I have no worries about racing on the poly as it is great for the horses. If GC puts on one extra meeting on the poly it is taking care of about 108 horses that might have missed out due to the smaller fields. That is around 27 races or 3 race meetings with full fields(that does not often happen die to some races not being as popular). My owners are very happy at the thought of the extra races and although some like yourself don't enjoy punting on the poly, there are many that do.(even the so called "goat track" had a pick 6 of over a million on Tuesday. You don't get that at most of the so called "non goat track" courses" on 90% 0f the race days) I am not going into that chicken and egg/owner and punter debate but the more we can race the better for the owner and the more options for the horses to run on a good track and in the right race. As I said earlier, I do agree that there is nothing better than seeing a field of good horses flying down the straight for the line on a well kept. bright green grass track.

As much as it horrifies the traditionalists , synthetic all weather surfaces are the future and will replace turf entirely IMO !
Because "all weather" is used "out of season" in the UK ,it has created an impression of a surface for poor horses -if the surface is kind to poor horses why would it not be kind to good horses?
Spray the Poly green and use it on good courses rather than the "squeezed"mini tracks! And it will give better service, and soon be accepted as the norm.
In the Synthetic vs Turf, synthetic ticks many more boxes -but this won't be a popular thought for now.......lol.

Turf should ALWAYS be the No1 option as it is natural and horses grow up on the surface in the fields so their actions and movements will not be compromised due to grip.
Poly is currently the best alternative but being synthetic there will be huge consequences if it is not maintained properly

Louis and Craig, would it not be a good idea to have Bradford Smith come out from Qatar to get the affected courses back on track?
He has been the track manager in Qatar for more than a decade.
1 turf track has been used for racing for 6-8 times a month from middle October to end of May each year with Temps ranging from 0'c to 45'c
There is rarely a track bias and it is just over a mile round so any race longer than 1800m is run twice past the win post, so twice as much traffic down the straight than any of our tracks.
He used to keep Randjies in good order

27 extra races=20million plus in stake money,which would not be spent if the grass tracks were in better nick.if they've got extra money for extra races maybe they should have spent it on the maintenance of the grass tracks

Ballie, what races are you running in? 20 million. More like R2 million in total, if that. :blink:

sorry 2million plus

Pictures from Greyville today and the comment below came with them .

Been scarified right down and silicon sand that has been super heated to kill all outside grass is being laid with a paving machine to make it absolutely flat. It will be vertidrained and seeded with the proper grass.

anybody noticed the clock used on the Gry-poly was wrong on the 1st day (05/07) and has now been fixed?