StableTalk

Sad state of affairs whe you only get 38 nominations. You have to wonder what state NZ racing is in.

Matamata Races Cancelled
8 Sep
The Matamata Races scheduled for Wednesday 13 September has been cancelled due to a lack of entries. At the closing of nominations 38 horses had nominated for the meeting with the prospect of getting sufficient numbers to hold even a restricted meeting unlikely. NZTR will look to add or divide races to Northern meetings in the coming week or weeks. The continuation of the wet weather particularly in the north has hampered the preparation of horses for many trainers.

Is there an argument for an all-weather or synthetic venue in the North Island ?

If the reason for poor entries is the poor weather (and I see the Wanganui card was lost on Saturday and rescheduled to Wednesday to fill the gap left by Matamata) and there are trainers desperate to get a run into their horses but wanting a decent surface, the argument for a synthetic surface becomes, I'd have thought, irresistible.

Such a surface could augment the winter Flat programme and stage meetings from say 1st May to 31st August and be available for trials and jump-outs for the rest of the year.

Odd though the meeting was pulled with 38 entries for six races - in the British system, a race is re-opened if it gets 6 or fewer entries but not scrapped (I think that does happen in America). We've had 20-30 runners at 6-race cards over here - either because of very heavy ground or conversely very firm ground for the jumpers.

So Hastings loses half its biggest day including the Classic.

It seems a chapter of misfortunes has bedeviled the Hawke's Bay track but I submit the biggest problem has been the artificial watering.

It's been a dry spell and so desperate were the course to avoid firm ground they threw water to artificially produce a Dead 4.

Now, we all know artificial irrigation isn't the same as the real stuff and damages the turf because of the way the water impacts. When you get real rain, the grass can't deal with it and the ground becomes loose and horses slip.

The Hastings authorities have only themselves to blame and the question is whether a Good 3 or even a Good 2 would have been so bad - with properly-managed and maintained turf, there should be no jar and horses can run fine on it.