Winning Post-1800m: Inside four lanes all quite even here and should race well with the good coverage of grass for the majority of the section. Lanes 4 and 5 are noticeably wet around the 2000m mark and this section of the track would be a Heavy 10 but unlikely too many find it. The 'racing lanes' are in the Soft 7 range.
1800m-1200m: The first 3-4 lanes are cleaner and coverage is very good. Walks slightly better than an 8 rating but it's very evident that the inside part of the track is fresh ground with hardly any marking at all.
1200-400m: Inside four lanes are clearly fresher ground. Coverage is thicker so will hold any rain that falls but there’s a better pad of grass underneath them here. It’s a 7 but a very good surface to race on. I thought lanes 1-4 would be an advantage here as it's firmer under foot. Rain on raceday could change that but at present I'm confident that's the case. Doubt too many will be wider than lane 4 though so should give them all their chance.
400m-WP: Really fresh ground again towards those inside lanes. Very little difference between hard up against the fence and out to lane 5. Slightly softer outside that point but can't imagine too many horses out there until late in the card should the inside start chopping up with rain. Walks a soft 7 but coverage is good.
Overview: Probably the best track I’ve walked for a while in terms of coverage and consistency across the majority of the racing surface. Most of it is a genuine 7, small areas are worse. Can't fault lanes 1-4 right around the track and it should make for a very fair track as not too many will be coming wider than that. There's rain forecast on Saturday so I'd imagine the track will find itself in the Heavy 8 range for racing.
R B R (Mgr: R W Balfour), J W Butcher, P Kristoris, Mrs S M Kristoris, Dr J K Sinclair, J F P Schmidt, Cointreau And Ice (Mgr: G N Harvey), J R Crewdson, B Griffin, Ms C Jones, C H H Giles, Mrs C Giles, A Turell, R Jones & M G Freeman
