A grandstand view
Phumelela’s General Manager of Eastern Cape Racing Luciano Passerini has conceded that the turf track is raceable for today’s meeting and that he is of the opinion that had there been no Polytack as an alternative for racing, the meeting would have gone ahead on the turf as originally programmed.
Passerini confirmed that the Fairview weather is beautiful today with a breeze that would have improved the going as the meeting progressed.
Being away at a meeting in Johannesburg yesterday, the refreshingly forthright and transparent Passerini consulted earlier this morning with Course Manager Kleintjie Badenhorst and a track inspection followed.
His response to our report from an angry PE trainer yesterday, is carried below:
I asked Mr Badenhorst on what grounds the decision was taken yesterday and his reply to me is that several role players had inspected the course yesterday morning at 10h00 and they were of the opinion that the course was not safe to race on due to marks caused last week in placing the starting stalls on the Polytrack.These marks are at approximately the 400m,200m and 100m marks.Their major fear was that horses may try and jump these patches.
Gavin Venter
The panel were Stipes Chairman Mike Jones,Stipe,Julia Keevy, trainers Grant Paddock and Jacques Strydom as well as jockeys Wayne Agrella,Shannon Devoy
and Eldin Webber, and former jockey Gavin Venter.
They requested that the meeting be moved sooner rather than later.
Mr Badenhorst made the call finally at 15h00 yesterday after doing a Penetrometer Reading and having an average of 30 – which is soft.
At this point I should point out that the marks left by the placing of the stalls on the Polytrack last week and not ‘Unsafe underfoot conditions’ should have been given as the reason for moving the meeting.
On my return to office this morning I requested Mr Badehorst to accompany
me and point out the areas which were of concern.We walked all the areas and
in my opinion the track is raceable.Yes, there are marks in the areas
mentioned,but they were given a good aerating and top dressing and are level.
The intention would have been to give the course a light role this morning prior to racing
commencing and scattering some grass clippings over the effected areas which would have made these areas hardly noticeable.
As the racing operator, the onus is on us to keep racing going at all costs.With the installation of the Polytrack in Port Elizabeth,we have not missed a meeting.
In fact today’s card will be the fifteenth meeting saved. This is naturally a huge plus to all role players.
The decision to change leaves us, the racing operator in a position that is inevitably unacceptable to some in the industry.
Let us take today’s meeting as a prime example – as I said earlier,I am of the opinion that the turf track is raceable.However, it was requested by Stipes,Trainers and Jockeys that the meeting be moved to the Polytrack.
We have to make a decision.
On the flipside, had we stood our ground and stuck to our guns to keep the meeting on the turf, we could have found ourself in the position of running the first race after which the jockeys lodge a protest and it is then decided to move to Poly – or even possibly
no more racing for the day.
At that point, punters would be up in arms and even worse,we could have a horse
breaking down – which can happen on any going – and a jockey getting njured.
This could then be attributed to the racing operator ignoring calls not to race on the turf.
In closing,may I make the following prediction.
We will be very lucky to have a recemeeting in heavy going on turf going forward.
The Polytrack just makes it so much easier for role players to say:”move to Poly or we won’t race.”
