Dubai Sheema Classic (G1T) winner Rebel's Romance is to join an expanding satellite yard of around a dozen Charlie Appleby-trained horses who are to campaign through the summer season in the United States this year.View the full article
Reviewing how fast each Kentucky Derby contender ran the last three-eighths of a mile of their final prep race has been a productive pursuit.View the full article
Dubai Sheema Classic (G1T) winner Rebel's Romance (IRE) is to join an expanding satellite yard of around a dozen Charlie Appleby-trained horses who are to campaign through the summer season in the United States this year.View the full article
Keith Asmussen set a goal to ride one race as a jockey. He has done far more than that, ranking as one of the leading riders at Oaklawn Park. Now comes the mount on Just Steel in the May 4 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs.View the full article
The operative words are: think we know, except it seems no one really knows!
At least that is what I am thinking with the conflicting guessing that is being put forward and coming from the different official channels via Media releases.
Good night
Liz
Sheesh Paul Wilcox was discredited multiple times on pages 18 & 19, but then also had his quote used in an effort to make a point. Who knows what to believe 🤪
Without wanting to wade too far into the ____ measuring contest of who can fit their schlong into the full depths of a 190mm cored Ellerslie surface hole to check how deep the matted roots are...
Is ATR suggesting that the problem last week is the same problem they had on Karaka Million night?
Pete quoted this piece from NZTR on Feb 2nd:
Ellerslie Racecourse
Immediately after Saturday’s race meeting at Ellerslie where some Jockeys experienced movement after 3mms of rain fell during the race meeting, Auckland Thoroughbred Racing (ATR) undertook a review which included Frank Casimaty from Strathayr. From that review, it was identified that a thick layer of roots had caused the issues experienced, it was agreed that Jason Fulford, Track Manager for ATR, would use appropriate machinery this week to break down that thick layer of roots just below the surface to ensure the horses get a better purchase on the track. Following the completion of this machinery work, jumpouts will be held at Ellerslie for Auckland based horses. The jumpouts are scheduled for Monday, 12 February.
Mix the above with this here video showing how deep the root structure really is - in some instances 230mm (at this point I am definitely out of aforementioned contest) and one could be mistaken for thinking the problem quite deep below the surface - Update on the StrathAyr track project - Part 5 | Auckland Thoroughbred Racing (aucklandracing.co.nz)
The strathyr video from Ohoka would appear to back up the theory that the matting would run quite deep into the cross section.
But hang on, last week Wilcox was quoted as saying:
“From what we can ascertain, it is the same issue where the grass is matted and joins the sand profile, which is causing the slipperiness. We thought we had that under control and we obviously didn’t,” Wilcox said.
From what we can gather based on the ATR coring video AND the strathyr video, the grass meets the sand profile very close to the surface.
So who knows what the hell to believe. Seems the reports change every time one is released... And they prey on industry participants like us knowing slightly less than what they seem to know (or not know) themselves. And they use terminology that confuses the issue even more.
If they REALLY wanted to be transparent as they say they do, best thing they could do at this point is another one of their coring videos, and visually show us a cross section with the matting. To give us peace of mind that they actually know what the hell they are dealing with, and how to fix it.
Crazy that 50% of his finishes have been 2nd, 3rd or 4th.
Always reminds me of Tortuff the old pacer from the late 90s who took over 100 starts to break through
I’d love to see where all their money goes. They get tens of thousands of people attending and the tickets are quite expensive from memory. They also get revenue from probably around 500 vendors or so. They should be swimming in cash .
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