THE TORCH

Paul Wilcox should leave his ivory tower for a few hours and stroll to the nearest bowling and golf clubs and get FREE advice on how to grow and maintain grass. He would learn more from them than the so called "experts" on racecourse turf management.

Come in trucking experts! - - would that have been possible in 4 days? If so how much damage would that weight in dump trucks do to the track?
 

Yes. If it needed another 3000 tons of sand, why wasn't that in the mix when, they built it? Has me flummoxed.

And Ellerslie is listening...give me a break this is why Industry money has been poured down the gurgler as they thought they knew best and only followed advice for a portion of the 55M $$$ project...but hey we should not discuss the issues as that is just being plain negative...right??? and who made the decision not to follow Strathayrs full advice and try to grow the grass instead of lay pre grown grass in...as was the normal practice when doing these tracks...that person or those people need to be held accountable.

That appears to be the same mob from the Auckland Trotting Club that thought they more about commercially developing properties than commercial property developers, hence the (reputed to be) $100,000,000 hole they found themselves in after 101 different issue meant the project overran in every possible direction. 

Cup Day Tradition - ROOTED
World Famous Jumps race over the HILL - ROOTED
General state of Racing - ROOTED
$55m Track - NOT ROOTED (apparently)
Seems the Muppets can root everything except what they needed to ....
Apparently this shot is from the meeting when they decided to send the Track developers home early

   

I can't find him to get his current opinion on rooting. Seems to have gone AWOL through all this. Any idea where he might be?

I know of two trainers that were there today and they walked onto the track and could not believe how hard it was sure they only walked on the outside 10  15 MTRs said it was like an all weather hockey field with sand on it.i do know that one of there horses came home jarred up.i still don't know why they did not follow all the right procedures and put on the strathayr grass ?
apparently they were advised to put in two water ponds but only put in one and the one they have got is leaking so they are running out of water  you get sugar lips on and he tells every one that they are doing the right thing and every one listens and think he knows what is right. And Leggy you should ask the CEO  of NZTR if grass can root in the sand.As I have said before I like going to Ellerslie and won't it fixed.

That should be "WE" got so much money for the hill , it is industry money , what is our is yours and what is yours is ours .
Perhaps some could have been spent getting Foxton a new grand stand .

Chucking on a heap of sand and then having trials so soon after???!!! Crazy approach if you ask me. And lets throw in a race meeting to boot! Wilcox has no idea. Looks like he thinks that taking 18 months off racing to produce a dodgy track is totally OK but a freakish incident on the morning of NZ Cup day deserves a raft of sackings. What a clown.

They got so much from selling the hill why in the hell did they not do it 100% correctly...the industry MUST have this as its show piece not a laughing stock.

Nah mate it's all good...just wait until it's bedded in LOL....this was the first time ever a track of this type has been done without using pre grown turf...but hey Ellerslie are a law unto themselves....they know all about all.

So for $55mil spent the solve is chuck a heap of sand on it , does suggest that maybe , yet again , that a whole stack of industry money has been wasted , because it is industry money .

Exactly. More kick back? Wouldn't that suggest that the turf is holding together less well than before?

Foxton should be in play to, Central Districts struggling for surfaces as well, it’s going to be a long winter…..

And why will they not be transparent and say exactly what the issues are and exactly what has been done to remedy them instead of all this waffling and politically correct PC bullshit...all just covering their arses, mark my words.

Haha funny I was just talking to a well known trainer and he feels they have made it worse and way too much kick back now...100% for sure it is not right and for 55 million it bloody well should be. How can putting sand on it actually fix the root of the problem...I always thought grass really struggles to root in sand...or is that not so now????
 

Can I ask this , why was what they are doing now to remediate the current issues not done in the first place if this is what is required to have the track where it should be ? or is this a result of not following accepted practice when laying the track in the first place ?
Heard Wilcox on Weigh In this morning and I just thought it was talking for the sake of it , to make it sound like they know what they are doing , but if they knew what they were doing none of this should have happened , should it ?
I agree we have to give them time to sort it because we need a showpiece facility , but really it shouldn't have gotten to this stage .
I don't know exactly what they are doing at Awapuni and then in turn Trentham but I bloody well hope they follow the experts advice down to the T .

So I am hearing they have put heaps of sand on the track...is that called remedial or will we end up like it was for two years with Te Rapa...tons of kickback and some horses hating it...or worse still like the debacle of Eagle farm...so thats is the best we can hope for after all the $$$$$$$$$ spent...maybe if they had followed the Strathayr peoples advise ALL THE WAY through then the result may be better...expert know it alls doing things their way. Let's just hope for the industries sake it gets sorted. 

No mate I mentioned this elsewhere and was told by a trainer I am just so anti the Ellerslie track ...that could not be further from the truth as we as an industry need this to succeed..it is after all the flagship....but hey lets all just keep quiet not speak out as we are the negative ones...and let the mediocre track and the people who spent the 55M on it take all the plaudits for giving us a track that we all just have to wait for it to "bed in" maybe a year or so...if this is the industry we have become where there is no accountability and everyone is happy with the shit show as it is well then no matter how much $$$$ Entain pour down the hole things will never get any better.

Not much I don't think. The issues were when the track was rain affected as well, including on the rail, and 50 horses galloping round the corner near the rail, on the bridle, on a non-rain affected surface, is not much help to me in assessing its safety

Or does this whole Ellerslie fiasco go back to a major sponsor saying - "you race on Karaka Millions Night or else!"  ??

Totally agree , along with Waverley , just not flavor of the month .
But tracks like these have been under pinning the CD racing whilst other blue riband clubs have had continuing issues .

Unless they are racing for $1.5 Million . $17k different rules.... faaark me, says it all doesn't it

Hawera is in great shape and leads the way in Taranaki. Use it!