A call to Gold Circle - let logic prevail

I would like to propose something radical to ensure that we have a successful July meeting. The current climatic conditions that have witnessed deluges of rain have led to the abandonment of scheduled meetings and rightly so. My concern is the recent track record ( excuse the pun ) of the Greyville turf track. It is clear despite the many excuses and assurances that Greyville turf is terminal and whether the ringmasters want to acknowledge it or not, the construction of a polytrack has had disastrous consequences for the turf. It should be clear to the most stubborn of apologists that this turf track can not host all the scheduled turf races in the "season". This has already been alluded to by the powers that be when in justification of the situation, say they do not want to damage the turf track by racing in soft conditions.

It is time for the leaders to stand up and be counted. Some drastic decisions need to be made and made quickly. In my opinion only Graded races leading up to the July should be run on the turf and only when it is clear the track will not be cut up doing this. All other races should be held on the poly. In future seasons planning should include no racing for the entire month of June on the turf.

I am sure there will be many that disagree. Many that scream about the shit poly racing and the tradition that will be halted by this move. The situation is simple. Greyville turf can not cope with the amount of racing planned and the ostriches in charge need to take their heads out of their arses er I meant sand, and come up with solutions.

kzn racing is dead with only 2 turf tracks

one of them is shit and the other is a catching up. polytrack provides for mediocre racing

theatre of champions ?
what champions kzn got ?
where are the kzn owners ?
the cape boys know how to buy horses that's something lacking in kzn

when last a GOOD horse came out of Durban ?

any good horse in Durban owned by a cape owner

kzn owners and gold circle live for mediocre racing

theatre of dreams ? more like theatre of amateurs ? theatre of denial ?

add in flamingo racing then you know racing is on life support

I will say it again:

Move it to Turffontein.

It is illogical to only have two grass tracks and still only use one of these tracks for grade one racing on the straight..surely scottsville is capable of hosting other big races. The betting world 1900 could easily be run at scottsville which is a much fairer track to greyville for example.The mercury sprint is another prime example of poor discion making. Split the turf feature turf racing more evenly and greyville will encounter 50% less of a problem.

I do think that OTA has a point.
No sense in rehashing the cock ups made by those responsible for the current state of things.
The poly is a necessity for everyday racing now that the damage has been done , but with the ongoing issues with the turf, it will only take a few big money / status races to be held at the same time in other centres, for visitors to give the whole season a skip with only a few horses traveling when everything would seem in their favour.

I think to preserve the status and popularity of the big races , the number of turf races should have to take a hit leading up to June , July at Greyville..
It's a draw biased , limited course at the best of times , but at least the surface should be exceptional for it to be hosting G1 races?

I agree fully with g2s move the July to Turfontein!! Great idea

oscar wrote: I agree fully with g2s move the July to Turfontein!! Great idea

Tongue in cheek comment ?

If not rock hard ground in middle of winter. Temperature on the day could be 10 degrees to 20 degrees. How many raiders were there during the Spring and Summer Season in Gauteng ? Many more negatives.

What about turfing the whole track again? And putting a Poly at Scottsville? Keeping the Sprint track for the big sprints ?

Guys there is no problem, besides GC are in the process of employing "student or qualified" horticulturist's. In May, which is as good a month as any :S , at the beginning of the season we are looking for professional qualified people to sort out our problems. After years of employing ex-cyclists to grow our grass, we are now looking for horticulturists, fantastic news, we have seen the light or should I say the weeds from the grass ? :lol: :lol:

Bob Brogan wrote: What about turfing the whole track again? And putting a Poly at Scottsville? Keeping the Sprint track for the big sprints ?

Santa Anita relaid their Turf Course just before they hosted the Breeders Cup. This was done in about 4 months.

Bob Brogan wrote: What about turfing the whole track again? And putting a Poly at Scottsville? Keeping the Sprint track for the big sprints ?

lights would be a problem and the cost of a new poly with that(new lights) would kill the Clairwood Xmas Box that keeps GC alive

neigh wrote: Guys there is no problem, besides GC are in the process of employing "student or qualified" horticulturist's. In May, which is as good a month as any :S , at the beginning of the season we are looking for professional qualified people to sort out our problems. After years of employing ex-cyclists to grow our grass, we are now looking for horticulturists, fantastic news, we have seen the light or should I say the weeds from the grass ? :lol: :lol:

That's the difference between people that know their product and those that don't - Drug dealers around the world ensure that the growers keep the product alive to sell to the addicts - Here we have a legal plant that grows in almost every backyard in the world yet our 'dealers' can't get it to grow - If Racing wants to be fixed they should perhaps forget going to Asian Conferences but rather send a delegation to the USA and beg for an audience with El Chapo as he can show them how to keep addicts in the game.