Weekend Wisdom 17th April 2016

Amateur Green Keeping

Many enthusiasts will gladly bid adieu to the Randwick Autumn of 2016. Despite relatively benign meteorological conditions, punters contended with a sub-optimal, soggy surface on each of the carnival days.

The degree of difficulty encountered assessing the Randwick contestants is starkly presented by analysis of last-start Rosehill form.

Rosehill’s carnival tranche, you may recall, supplied three agreeable surfaces.

However, transferring from the sure-footed interior circuit to the eastwards coastal blancmange, proved a treacherous business.

Quite simply, last-start Rosehill form carried market expectations of 15 winners at Randwick, yet failed wretchedly, delivering just 7.5.

Of the 134 aspirants, short-priced notables Tarzino and Nancy feebly lacked penetration, while Old North was meekly reeled in by a rival with Randwick’s custard credentials.

Now, variety is to be commended in the stratified world of Thoroughbred form, but the variation encountered over past weeks is disconnected from the horse-player’s experiential assessment.

For example, a keen follower of The Punters Show, residing in close proximity to Randwick, found it unfathomable that the condition of his lawn could be in such stark contrast to the nearby course proper.

Succinctly, “They said it was wet, but how could that be the case given the weather, yet it was wet”.

We all need to make sense of our environment. That fact alone imbues the horse player with sufficient confidence, indeed ebullience, to play the game.

The current incoherency between climate and surface inevitably gives rise to the choleric response; “tear up the track!”

Plugging “soggy turf” into my trusty search engine steered me to an edifying article entitled “How soil drainage works: it’s not what you think”

Early in the author’s enlightenment she states that “The trouble is that water in soils just doesn’t behave in the way that intuitively you’d think that it should”.

This assertion is supported by the fact that “the forces of adhesion in a soil can be stronger than the force of gravity”, meaning that “water can stick so tightly onto the soil particles that gravity is not strong enough to pull it off”.

Fundamentally, somewhere in the soil will reside a “permanent wet-zone” where drainage only occurs when saturation is exceeded.

Obviously, this wet-zone must be some distance from the surface to prevent “soggy turf”.

Where it lies is dependent on the soil profile and soil depth.

The article alludes to an interesting garden experiment where a pot of soil is watered. When no more water is observed draining out, the pot is angled at 45° and water recommences draining as the height of the soil has increased.

It is a reasonable presumption that the drainage system at Randwick is extensive, but if precipitation can’t access the run-off pipes because of unsuitable soil profile/depth, then “tearing up the track” may be warranted.

The author offers a general prescription of a 30mm layer of coarse sand covered by a light sandy topsoil, minimizing the texture difference between the two layers; a soil profile that reduces the height of the “wet-zone”.

My amateur pronouncements must surely offend turf professionals. Alas, these professionals have failed to satisfy racing enthusiasts with their explication of an unacceptably slow-drying Randwick.

Wrandwick Wrap

Saturday’s 9m rail position proved relatively innocuous.

Racing appeared to favour stalkers away from the rail, but results were principally circumstance-dependent; dawdling fillies in race four assisting Yattarna in her quest to “make all”.

Alart’s inside striving at long odds in Race Two seems hard to reconcile with an inside/quicksand assessment.

Sometime back on the Punters Show I delivered a pearl to the effect of “Beware a short price off a losing long SP last start”.

Santa Ana Lane and Pearls fitted the bill and duly delivered plain performances.

Meanwhile He’s Our Rokkii shone a light on Old North’s substance or lack thereof, the moral being that an obstacle-free performance does not render a “good thing” next time.

The less-than-vintage renewal of the Champagne Stakes will shock no-one. Nonetheless, it is pertinent to note that of the past ten winners with breeding aspirations (Prized Icon is entire), five have failed to win subsequently.

Of the remaining five, only Samantha Miss over-achieved, with Pierro matching expectation.

A pallid future awaits Prized Icon, while those astern are destined to struggle.

Far rosier was Music Magnate’s return. While the early tempo was hardly arduous, the death-seat pricking of Speak Fondly’s balloon forced him to paddle late, deceptively thwarting Knoydart’s sniping drive.

The runner-up’s under-the-radar performance highlights the analyst’s need to focus upon significant changes second run back. Second-up is clearly fertile territory for a dramatic improvement, be it from a major gear adjustment or decisive change in underfoot conditions.

The thrilling denouement of the feature, The All-Aged, announced the arrival of the recently Weir-acquired Black Heart Bart in the “I’m a serious horse” department. His purposeful striving underneath the winner the day’s prepossessing performance.

The race was also notable for the lacklustre steering of two fancied protagonists, Press Statement and Malaguerra.

The penultimate race of the carnival simply belonged to the imported Guardini, who relished the timid opposition of a predominantly last-start Rosehill brigade, as noted previously, an ineffective weapon in a 2016 Autumn contest at Randwick.

Geography 101

The Randwick track’s alignment from south-west to north-east is of particular interest considering the prevalence of a nor-easterly wind, at times registering 40km/h deep into raceday.

Courtesy of http://en-au.topographic-map.com/places I reproduce below a topographical map of Randwick racecourse and its environs:

The racecourse’s position to the south of Centennial Park and the south-east of Queen’s Park becomes especially meaningful from the above perspective.

The ridge to the south-east and east affords some protection from a wind in that direction.

As soon as the wind swings around to an east-nor-easter, it becomes funnelled by Queen’s Park, with Centennial Park providing amplification as we work towards a northerly.

The vast expanse of the racecourse precinct in concert with the north-easterly park funnels creates an intolerable wind situation for rails-dwellers down the side and in the straight.

Be wind-aware at Randwick. Any decent breeze from NNE to ENE will hammer rails runners, strongly favouring wide draws and wide runners.