Hawkins. Confident that KZN is well on track
Gold Circle’s Director of Horseracing Graeme Hawkins has allayed industry concerns about the management of the Greyville racing surfaces following an unanticipated jockey protest during the Flamboyant Stakes racemeeting on Friday. The jockeys raised concerns after the second race about patches on the bend and this caught punters unawares as the going was officially declared as’ good to firm’ with the pen reading at 18.
After a panel was formed and the track inspected, the meeting continued. But the incident once again raised the inevitable debate around the management of racetracks in the province. Facebook was lively after the meeting, with numerous racing experts, jockeys and trainers expressing an opinion.
Kevin Shea wrote: When you watch racing in CT, JHB and look at their track’s, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the huge diff to our construction site that we have to risk our live’s on and then listen to people who have never riden before and accept the coment’s…???? What about the horse, they are number one and in danger as well.
Robert William Champion wrote: KB the problem with KZN tracks is ongoing and has been for some time. You would think in this multi million rand business their planning would be better. Greyville in particular is a disgrace and a danger to both horses and riders. I take my hat off to you jocks for you.
Duncan Mckenzie wrote: Rob you can’t believe how good the tracks are in p.e. I can talk from experience how many horses are unsound in Durban. vets making a killing.
We approached Graeme Hawkins, who conceded that the track was not in the condition that they would have liked to see it, and that slight depressions were evident. He said that various factors had come into play in a process that had been a learning curve for all involved. Hawkins said that in an ideal world, Greyville, effectively a construction site, would have been closed for the full period of the construction, but that the practicality of losing possibly up to a third of scheduled meetings would have impacted heavily on owners and trainers.
He said that the extreme recent weather conditions, coupled with the disabling of the irrigation system over at least half the track, had also been contributing factors. He said that pipes were being laid in construction of the new scientifically designed drainage and irrigation systems and that these had led to the ‘patches’ on the turf referred to by the jockeys.
He pointed out that the existing irrigation system, which had largely been placed out of commission due to the construction work, had not been missed up to 15 December in view of the heavy rains that had prevailed up to that point. However the ground had dried up, with no rain having fallen since, and with wind and high temperatures compounding issues.
Hawkins added that an example of the everchanging conditions and dynamics was that the jockeys had requested that cuttings be thrown over the areas worked upon previously, but had requested that they be removed this past Friday evening. He said that he felt that Gold Circle had always been flexible and maintained open lines of communications with all stake holders, and that he had maintained an open door policy.
Hawkins said that the irrigation system would be fully operational by the middle of next week and that Greyville would have a break of six weeks. A reprogramming had already been anticipated prior to Friday evening’s meeting. The R160-million project by Gold Circle to install the new Polytrack on the inside of Greyville’s existing grass course, includes the building of 500 stables and a Polytrack training track at Summerveld.
The 2000m Polytrack is being built to replace Clairwood Racecourse, which will close at the beginning of the 2014-15 racing season, with the final race meeting scheduled to be held there on 3 August this year. Work started in the first week of August at Greyville, just after the Gold Cup meeting, and despite cutting into the grass track, the Polytracks’ foundations were laid on schedule. Martin Collins and his team are supervising the installation.
The Summerveld project, estimated to cost R85 million, is to be completed first and the Poly training track was supposed to be completed by Christmas. “It is regrettable that industrial action in the construction industry and the heavy rainfall combined to cause a delay in the scheduled programme at Summerveld. But I want to say that we would rather see things done properly with a delay, than the cutting of corners which could lead to problems in the medium term,” said Hawkins, who added that there were performance penalty clauses in place for the contractors.
Once the Greyville Polytrack is completed, Gold Circle’s premier racecourse is expected to host around 80 race meetings a year. Greyville has been arguably the most successful night-racing venue in South Africa for the last 18 years and both tracks will have the capacity to host night meetings. The lights will be extended to the 2400m mark from the 1600m and new floodlight technology will be utilised on the back straight.
“Our intention is to race as many times as possible at Greyville on a Friday night. We’re planning to make Greyville the destination to be after dark on Fridays,” said CEO Michel Nairac recently, adding that the Palm Court, a facility in the Greyville grandstand, is being renovated to cater for the expected crowds. It will reopen by the beginning of Champions Season next year.
The project is being funded by the sale of Clairwood, which was bought by a JSE-listed property fund for R430 million. The property was leased back for two years, a contract that expires next year. Both Greyville and Summerveld are expected to be completed between April and May.
