preponderance of poa grass

Nicci Garner: The Turffontein race meeting on Saturday was switched from the Inside track to the Standside track following Race 1 after jockeys raised concerns about a patch on the inside track at around the 1100m mark.

OCTOBER 30, 2017
The stipendiary board convened a panel and after a track inspection was carried out it was decided racing through the patch would be unsafe. As all other races on the programme would have been affected, it was decided after consultation with Phumelela management to move the remaining races to the Standside track. Since there was a patch in similar condition at around the 2000m on the Standside track, the distance for Race 9 was reduced from 2600m to 1950m.

According to a press release from Phumelela, the patches were caused by a preponderance of poa grass, which is considered a weed, over the traditional kikuyu.

Track management has sprayed the poa grass with an herbicide but that stunted regrowth of the kikuyu in certain areas, most noticeably at the pull-up area around the 2000m mark and to a lesser extent the 1100m mark. This consequence, the release states, is unusual and there has been ongoing maintenance to accelerate kikuyu regrowth in those areas.

The release continues that the concern raised about the area at the 1100m mark on Saturday came as a surprise because horses have raced over that area without any issues over the last three Turffontein Inside track meetings.

Phumelela will engage with the National Horseracing Authority to assist in getting to the bottom of the matter. Track management are confident the affected areas will recover sufficiently to ensure the staging of forthcoming meetings at Turffontein.

The switch in track led to a number of upset results, with only 0.43 winning Pick 6 tickets and R655,099 being carried forward.

And only a portion of the pool was won at Kenilworth on Saturday with R138,709 going into the carryover pot.

The Grade 2 Western Cape Fillies Championship over 1400m was the topliner at the Kenilworth meeting and it was no race for Justin Snaith-trained Snowdance, who paid R14.10 for a TAB win and won by 4.25 lengths from favourite Magical Wonderland.

The result of the Grade 3 Cape Classic was more punter friendly, going to Vaughan Marshall’s 3-1 chance Tap O’ Noth.