The Cambridge Jockey Club is holding the country’s first official meeting on a synthetic track.
Construction of the Polytrack surface began in January last year and, despite some hiccups caused by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown two months later, the club has been successfully operating jumpouts, trial meetings and morning trackwork on the surface since October.
It now faces the ultimate test, hosting an official meeting for the first time. The track was budgted to cost about $13 million.
All nine races tomorrow each have more than a dozen horses lining up.
The weatherproof track, one of three to be built around the country, is seen as crucial to help thoroughbred racing throughout the winter.
It will give a truer surface and lessen the number of abandoned meetings.
Punters also consider wet tracks as being a lottery for results so have steered away from those meetings.
Along with the new track, the Cambridge club has been upgrading other facilties to help meet the standards expected.
Construction of the synthetic track in Christchurch is flying along and trackwork is set to begin in August.
Canterbury Jockey Club chief executive Tim Mills said construction of its $13.5 million track was proceeding very smoothly.
The weather had been brilliant for construction and all the civil work for the new facility had been done. The three layers of the track were being laid at the moment.
Dates had been set for race meetings to take place at the new track at Riccarton in May next year.
The new synthetic track would be inside the grass track, be 1900m in length and have set starting areas for all the popular distances.
All summer and main meetings would still be run on the grass track with the synthetic track to be used more for winter race meetings.
The Cambridge track will have midweek meetings every two weeks for the rest of the season.
The funding for the tracks came from funds provided by the racing industry and the Provincial Growth Fund.
Construction on the third synthetic track, at Awapuni, near Palmerston North, is due to begin in October.
— Additional reporting NZ Racing Desk
