Vaal Sand Thursday.

How good is the result of the 8th race for racing.

Terrible.

Impossible to catch... I took maximum swingers with Born to Buck (have tipped it once before in my ramblings where it disappointed).. and Radar o' Reilly I have also mentioned in previous dribblings... looked very closely at this one and could NOT make a case for it !!! That swinger paid R117.

Morning Guys, I will not be going to play in the sand again for a long time especially over distance. Tamarillo didnt handle the altitude and was blowing like he was nearly distressed after the race. Isle of dogs was caught in the kickback and never raised a gallop. Could not have blown out a candle but hated it.20+ years since I was last there and probably about that till I go again! Very depressing place. Cold, dark and brown!

also craig trainers that train at the vaal have home ground advantage and phumelela should look at closing the vaal and turfontein down because of this ...

Craig Eudey Wrote:

---

> Morning Guys, I will not be going to play in the
> sand again for a long time especially over
> distance. Tamarillo didnt handle the altitude and
> was blowing like he was nearly distressed after
> the race. Isle of dogs was caught in the kickback
> and never raised a gallop. Could not have blown
> out a candle but hated it.20+ years since I was
> last there and probably about that till I go
> again! Very depressing place. Cold, dark and
> brown!

Craig what do you use to treat Isle of Dogs eyes this morning... ??

pirates Wrote:

---

> also craig trainers that train at the vaal have
> home ground advantage and phumelela should look at
> closing the vaal and turfontein down because of
> this ...


Stop being a bitch Pirates...<

GB its fine I am a big boy and speaking to the majority of trainers including me, they should close it! Will see what we can get for the property. Also a nice industrial area but no port facillities!

I can then park my new yacht in the port....

The track was even (0.0) on my course variation calculations, making it the slowest track of the last 6 meetings. The last race being the slowest race (actual time vs class standard) and was a complete anomaly.
The winner, Dancing Spectra, was 4th in my ratings following the scratching of Mr. Alfonso and could be considered as a contender (also had a nomination on the 19th, two nominations for this meeting and again for the workriders maiden on the 23rd ???). However, could never have found the next 3 !!!

Just one fact highlighted itself - the first 5 were drawn 6-7-9-8-5 reinforcing a previous comment that middle to low draws are more favourable over the 1000m…could this part of the track be getting a ‘treatment’ making more advantageous ???

Last week they applied 972 000 litres of water and three weeks before that over 200 000 litres of water more per week . Obviously the amount of water applied determines the speed at which the track runs and the amount of kickback . The more you water the faster the track and less kickback .

I agree 100% with The happy horseplayer assesment of the track . I think the groundsman must try and keep to some sort of standard when preparing this track . They basically can manipulate/prepare the track to any specification .
One needs to sympathise with them cause it takes a lot of work to ready that track for a raceday . They are rolling the track between races now , logic tells me that if there is not enough water and water retention ,the track really can't bind enough which makes the rolling sort of pointless .

I hope the groundsmen get it right going forward .

@08h00: Partly Cloudy - 8kph crosswind; @12h00: ; @16h00:
RAIN 24 HOURS: Nil, RAIN 7 DAYS: Nil, PENETROMETER READING: Nil
IRRIGATION 24 HOURS: Nil, IRRIGATION 7 DAYS: 972 000 Litres
TRACK CONDITION: Standard, FALSE RAIL POSITION:


08h00: Fine, S/W 10kph Crosswind; @12h00: ; @16h00:
RAIN 24 HOURS: Nil, RAIN 7 DAYS: Nil, PENETROMETER READING:
IRRIGATION 24 HOURS: , IRRIGATION 7 DAYS:
TRACK CONDITION: , FALSE RAIL POSITION: 1152 000L


@08h00: Fine - North Westerly 20kph Crosswind; @12h00: ; @16h00:
RAIN 24 HOURS: Nil, RAIN 7 DAYS: Nil, PENETROMETER READING:
IRRIGATION 24 HOURS: , IRRIGATION 7 DAYS: 1.224.000 Litres
TRACK CONDITION: , FALSE RAIL POSITION:


@08h00: Fine - North Westerly 10-20kph Crosswind; @12h00: ; @16h00:
RAIN 24 HOURS: Nil, RAIN 7 DAYS: Nil, PENETROMETER READING:
IRRIGATION 24 HOURS: , IRRIGATION 7 DAYS: 1.242.000 Litres
TRACK CONDITION: , FALSE RAIL POSITION:



@08h00: Fine - Northerly 3kph Crosswind; @12h00: ; @16h00:
RAIN 24 HOURS: Nil, RAIN 7 DAYS: Nil, PENETROMETER READING:
IRRIGATION 24 HOURS: Nil, IRRIGATION 7 DAYS: 1.296.000 Litres
TRACK CONDITION: , FALSE RAIL POSITION: