FAIRVIEW 08/08/2014 TURF TO POLY ????

Changing the meeting from Turf to Poly due to 1 day of frost over 3 weeks ago. Not once in the last year has the turf ever been used in soft conditions due to the fact that each time there is rain on a turf meeting, the meeting gets changed to poly. In the last 9 weeks there have only been 5 turf meetings, so track not used every week. At no time horses are allowed to gallop on the grass if conditions are poor and when they do gallop they are kept to the outside. Cape Town has had severe weather conditions, frosts and days of over 80mm of rain and they only lost 2 meetings. The condition of the Fairview Turf track is due to poor track management. Fairview used to be one of the fairest turf tracks in the country, with a nice big sweeping bend and 800m run in, something trainers use to attract owners to PE, now we have the poly not due to rain but due to poor track management. Somebody needs to be held accountable and somebody needs to be brought in, either in an advisory capacity or in a full time capacity to restore what once was one of the best grass courses in the country. Greyville is looking attractive compared to Fairview at the moment.

Well said

Wasnt going to post this

Change of Surface for Port Elizabeth Racing
Following an inspection of the turf track, Phumelela Gaming Limited has taken the decision to move the race meeting scheduled for 8 August from the turf to the Polytrack.
With the track experiencing its coldest winter in 40 years, together with some severe frost, the recovery rate has been very slow and thus we are experiencing kick-back in the high traffic areas especially around the turn and between the 250 and 600m mark up the straight which generally is a damper part of the of the course. The course is due to be scarified at the end of August.
The decision was made by management who felt that the course could be fit for racing but were of the opinion that we have the Polytrack as an alternative and with the forecast of rain it would be a better option to move the meeting sooner than later, thus also limiting the number of scratchings that would have taken place had we declared for a turf meeting and then moved it to the Polytrack.

Bob Brogan wrote: Wasnt going to post this

Change of Surface for Port Elizabeth Racing
Following an inspection of the turf track, Phumelela Gaming Limited has taken the decision to move the race meeting scheduled for 8 August from the turf to the Polytrack.
With the track experiencing its coldest winter in 40 years, together with some severe frost, the recovery rate has been very slow and thus we are experiencing kick-back in the high traffic areas especially around the turn and between the 250 and 600m mark up the straight which generally is a damper part of the of the course. The course is due to be scarified at the end of August.
The decision was made by management who felt that the course could be fit for racing but were of the opinion that we have the Polytrack as an alternative and with the forecast of rain it would be a better option to move the meeting sooner than later, thus also limiting the number of scratchings that would have taken place had we declared for a turf meeting and then moved it to the Polytrack.

How on earth does management think they know better than Vets ,Trainers and Jockeys?

why did stipes not take action after jockeys and vet asked to switch to poly?

There is an interesting common denominator when tracks are discussed at the moment-the positives are acts of management but the cock-ups are all acts of God

Fark me, that is the lamest excuse I think I have ever heard. Seems to me the "powers" that be have simply chosen not to invest much in the upkeep of the turf track in the knowledge that they can simply switch to the Poly. Big mistake.

News for you, some of us really aren't that interested in Poly races. If the long term goal is simply not to use turf tracks to earn yourselves an extra buck or two then guaranteed it will fail, punters will walk away in their droves. You can push people only so far and then you go that one step that is too far...

PS Well done to Mark and the Sham team, and Bob for supporting them here, in highlighting the issue and taking some action. I doubt this decision would have been made without them making noises and no doubt there would have been a complete and utter shambles (no pun intended lol) again come Thursday night/ Friday.