New Starting Stalls for Fairview

RELEASED BY: Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Limited

PHUMELELA has imported a bank of state-of-the-art starting stalls from Australia for use at Fairview Racecourse in the Eastern Cape.
According to Phumelela’s horseracing executive Patrick Davis, it had become necessary to replace the old bank of starting stalls at Fairview. After due investigation, it was decided to buy SIMTRACK starting stalls, which are in use at Randwick in Australia, Longchamp and Chantilly in France and at several other racecourses around the world.
``The new stalls were landed at a cost of just over R1-million - the same price and of better quality than stalls we could have had manufactured locally,’’ said Davis, adding that the deal also included a four-berth ``practise training gate’’.
Fields at Fairview are limited to 18 runners in races down the straight and 16 in races round the turn.
The new bank of starting gates looks different to the stalls local racegoers are used to with the front gates extending lower in order to reduce the chance of horses rolling under the gates. The back gates are also much deeper than normal, ensuring a safer environment for handlers.
The stalls are fabricated using high tensile, light weight and virtually maintenance-free materials with the front and back gates made of stainless steel. Easy to move, the bank operates hydraulically and the mechanism is virtually silent. The stalls are opened and closed with an electric push button, rather than the lever operation, with a back-up manual standby system for emergency use.
Luciano Passerini, Phumelela’s general manager Eastern Cape racing, said that the new stalls had been well received and that globetrotting Felix Coetzee had said to him after the last Fairview meeting that the gates gave him “great confidence”.
The stalls were designed by SIMTRACK director Tony Sims who has been involved in the design and manufacture of racecourse equipment since 1958.
He said: ``My involvement in the design and manufacture of racecourse equipment is well known, spanning more than 40 years, and I believe that this new machine marks the most important advance in starting gate design for some time. In particular the hydraulic system eliminates the old mechanical lever type operation making the gate more reliable with no maintenance required."
SIMTRACK is a South Australian company specialising in the manufacture of starting gates and running rails for the horseracing industry.

Having worked in the gates for many years i know there is no sch thing as maintenance free materials, in the gates horses often bite the padding off, jockey's irons wear out the material on the gates as they often brush it when they jump. So do these gates close themselves with a push of a button !? What if the horse isn't 100% in and you try close it ? Having looked at the gates used in Japan, they are great as they are more spacious and the backs are very low which is great if you are a handler. The ones used in Hong Kong are not as good, the back gates are held closed by a tension spring and the manufactures are obviously unaware how much force a 550KG horse can exert on them as a few have suddenly just given way and burst open. These gates are from Australia too so i hope Fairview's are not the same ones.

any reason why we dont introduce the gates they use in new zealand?

Good morning Pirates is that the half gates? for want of a better description.

Tried to check the reason why in NZ they have no roof and found this reply, which sounds fair enough............

"they are safe, when horses rear they don't hit the head. plus they are easier to move"

pirates Wrote:

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> any reason why we dont introduce the gates they
> use in new zealand?

I've been told they are as flimsy as hell, and with no upper structure to hold them together they have to be kept together by some complicated linking mechanism or other. Don't take my word for it, though. I also used to think that they are the ideal type, but I guess there's a reason why (if they're so great) nobody else uses them. However, if I were a jockey or a horse I'd still reckon they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, and the logistics be damned.

Will these gates stop the amount of runners that come through the front?

Do we not have qualified engineers, mill rights, designers left in SA, that we have to import.
I thought SA had the best in everything.
For all I care the Aussies might have had it made in China with no labeling on the product.

Why not use a piece of string.

At least they spent some money on infrastructure.:)o

Only disappointment that they never bought from a local supplier.

What happened to the good old flag start, its ok over the jumps X(

scotia Wrote:

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> What happened to the good old flag start, its ok
> over the jumps X(

Where races are run over a minimum of two miles and the pace is often slower than that of Continental drift. In a 1000m dash on the Flat, though, flag starts would be enoiugh to make even the most desperate gambler decline to have a bet.

magiclips Wrote:

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> scotia Wrote:
>

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>

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> > What happened to the good old flag start, its
> ok
> > over the jumps X(
>
> Where races are run over a minimum of two miles
> and the pace is often slower than that of
> Continental drift. In a 1000m dash on the Flat,
> though, flag starts would be enoiugh to make even
> the most desperate gambler decline to have a
> bet.

The only race Man 'O War lost was when he had his arse facing the string/flag at the jump.