Vaal sand tues

Just had a message from the track, basically they have put loads of work in over the weekend and they were hopeful of racing. But someone decided against watering ( even though it's the binding agent ) and it still looks quite loose. They haven't galloped yet so let's wait for the announcement

Bob Brogan wrote: Just had a message from the track, basically they have put loads of work in over the weekend and they were hopeful of racing. But someone decided against watering ( even though it's the binding agent ) and it still looks quite loose. They haven't galloped yet so let's wait for the announcement

That sounds comical ........sounds like there is disagreement on what is required !
No surprise .....100% for effort ,FA for skill....lol!

Rob the impression I'm getting is that the trainers and owners need the vaal track and the jockeys and operators don't

It's times like these that I can feel for owners and trainers. Lots of words come to mind though I am gonna try look for the sunshine rather.

There seems to be debate, generally, on whether poorer horses should be catered for ...................has it perhaps reached a stage of over catering thereby convincing owners to keep horses in training longer?

Who said this isn't rocket science?

(4) Gosforth Park
(3) Newmarket
(2) Vaal
(1) Turffontein

Lift off

Houston we have a problem.

Bob seems to me this is operator driven, though they of course will find someone to try and put the blame on in some childish "its not my fault, honest" manner.

I may not have been involved in SA racing long but certainly only a couple of years ago I did not hear anywhere near the number of complaints about the sand track as we do currently, nor many of the issues/problems which have arisen concerning the track in that time period. Also I do not hear of people saying this has been going on 5/10 years so I can only assume, possibly wrongly, that everyone was relatively happy with it. Whether this washed sand etc has anything to do with it, I have no clue but the bottom line is if Phumelela didn't want it, they should never have laid it.

Anyway, the point is that the track gradually seems to have declined and that to me can only be the fault of the operators. And it is hardly the only course in SA where recently there have been huge issues over the standards of courses. To me they are simply not monitoring these courses effectively and either/or employing sufficient capable staff to maintain them in good order or supplying sufficient funds for this to be done. They need a (brain transplant or two or a) good kick up the @rse imo to get moving... whether that be to do their jobs effectively or out the door.

Quote from Louis Goosen

"It looks very very good, up to the jocks now "

If they race today and the track is good then this is a huge indictment on the management of this track previously by Phumelela. There are many horses who only "perform" on this surface, they do not reproduce the sand form on turf or poly. What will happen to these horses if the sand is grassed over? For me the issue here is simple, the Operator does not want to maintain the track for whatever reason money, time, labour take your pick

Meeting goes ahead as scheduled, the track will ride a bit heavy but it's consistent

Well done to the pulling together of the trainers and track manager

Bob Brogan wrote: Quote from Louis Goosen

"It looks very very good, up to the jocks now "

If its such a touch and go whether they race, then nothing says that after 2 or 3 races it wont be alright.

Bob Brogan wrote: Meeting goes ahead as scheduled, the track will ride a bit heavy but it's consistent

Well done to the pulling together of the trainers and track manager

Until the 3rd race and the jockeys protest