FLEMINGTON TRACK THE BIGGEST JOKE IN VICTORIA

By Matt Nicholls

12/06/2012

melbourneracing@gmail.com

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I NEARLY choked on my cornflakes when an email from Racing Victoria hit my desk last Friday.

It said the Moonee Valley track was being given time to further prepare for a big season and that two Saturday meetings in June would be transferred elsewhere, giving the track further time to consolidate after its autumn renovation.

Now that’s a smart move. Don’t over race on a track that is one of your premier venues when you need it later this year when TAB turnover is at its peak.

But what had me gasping for air was that one of those meetings was transferred to Flemington.

Are they mad?

As a result of that decision, Flemington will now hold four meetings in the space of 18 days.

Where’s the logic in that?

We saw them try and protect the track last Wednesday, with the rail out a ridiculous 15 metres, only for Saturday’s program, with the rail out six metres, to be rated a heavy (8) retrospectively for the running of the last race.

We had rain in Melbourne on Saturday – more than I and many expected – but the Flemington of old wouldn’t have raced heavy.

Even when the track was rated slow there were massive clumps of turf being thrown up by horses – something you don’t see on some tracks when it’s a heavy (10).

The Victoria Racing Club and Racing Victoria clearly have their heads in the sand when it comes to the state of the Flemington track.

It doesn’t appear to be racing unsafely, so they can continue to race on it as much as they like, but they are kidding themselves if they think they are going to throw up a ripping surface for the spring carnival.

I’d certainly hate to think what the track is going to be like on Emirates Day this year if we have a wet Melbourne Cup week.

They’ll be racing on the outside fence.

You’re reading all of this because I’m not a licensed person with Racing Victoria.

I won’t be gagged or fined for making comment like Danny O’Brien was.

I rang O’Brien yesterday to get some feedback on the track and he said he couldn’t make any comment. He said it with a smile. He wanted to talk but he couldn’t.

Do I blame him? No. He has been warned not to make any negative comment regarding the track after criticising the Flemington surface on Twitter a few weeks ago.

I also rang two other Flemington-based trainers to see if they would comment about the track.

One gave a simple “no comment”.

The other said he would love to tell the general public how he felt about the track, but feared being rapped over the knuckles by Racing Victoria.

I’m not sure if a memo has been sent out by the state’s racing officialdom about making comments about the Flemington track, but it’s clear they are pretty precious about it.

It should also be made clear that the blame does not rest completely with Flemington track manager Mick Goodie.

I felt sorry for the bloke a few weeks back when he got emotional in a radio interview defending his track and the fact he cored it before a meeting where three horses fell.

The reality is the track needs to be resurfaced (again) and we’ll explain why later this Friday to complement our Saturday preview.

Flemington might drain better than just about every other bloody surface but it has since produced fast lanes and unusual bias (for Flemington) in the last couple of years.

The VRC also got unlucky when that beetle attacked the surface, causing chaos to preparations.

So there are excuses for Goodie and his team.

But that doesn’t excuse Racing Victoria for transferring an extra two meetings there in the space of a few weeks when it’s clear the track is having issues.

Why not transfer a mid-week metro meeting from Sandown to Bendigo and race another Saturday at Sandown? Why not have a Saturday meeting at Seymour or Mornington?

I’ll tell you why. Money.

No matter how bad the surface is at Flemington, or how far the rail is out, stupid punters will invest a lot more money on races at headquarters than places like Sandown and Bendigo.

It’s sad that our best racetrack is being made a sacrificial lamb so the industry can boost its turnover.