Sydney racing: Should metropolitan tracks take a break during winter?

The problems with winter racing are almost too many to count – and it starts with the facts. It’s cold, it rains a lot, the best horses stay home and so do the racegoers.

Some will tell you that doesn’t make the punting a bad proposition at all. The racing still unearths good horses, jockeys are made to work harder to find the best run, and trainers and work riders really earn their crust with foggy 3am starts.

The lingering question that hovers during the more dour months is: should racing be running on the premier city tracks?

No track in the land can handle being overused, and with spring so important, Sydney’s two premier metropolitan tracks in Randwick and Rosehill need to be rejuvenated.

The other metropolitan tracks, Warwick Farm and Canterbury, have their own set of problems. Warwick Farm doesn’t race well in the wet, and while Canterbury’s surface is claimed to be one of the best in NSW, both tracks are left as the decided shabbier roughies.

Gai Waterhouse has repeatedly said things like “Canterbury is the most under-utilised track in Australia”, and “I have always considered Canterbury to be perhaps the best track in Sydney”.

Yet Canterbury was used just twice in May, once in June, three times in July, and is slated for two meetings in August.

No track is given more than a few weeks off at a time, and racing doesn’t stop in Sydney both mid-week, and on Saturdays.

The workload on the tracks, combined with the wet winter months, morning dews, and little sunshine, mean the big tracks need a rest to recover.

To make matters worse this year, a torrid late-autumn spell with a deluge across most of the coast regions has meant tracks simply refuse to dry out.

Hugh Bowman has been outspoken – saying everyone would be better off if racing was elsewhere completely.

“To be perfectly honest, I think it’d be better for everyone if we weren’t racing this time of year,” said Bowman to Fairfax Media.

“Maybe give Grafton a stand-alone Saturday, maybe Kembla and Newcastle (one each) and have a month off the city tracks and give them a bit of a spell.

“Warwick Farm was a joke [last month], Canterbury is racing beautifully [on July 8] but Rosehill has been difficult. You’re trying to ride your horses but you’re trying to read the tracks as well.”

Of course, there is sometimes no escaping the wet. NSW across the board is soaked. Looking across this week, the Wagga Wagga surface was rated a Heavy 9, Canberra a Heavy 8 and Wyong a Soft 7. Even sunny Queensland was copping the wet, with the Sunshine Coast rated a Soft 5.

The merits of synthetic tracks bring up a whole range of fresh arguments not suited here. Racing NSW are flatly not interested.

It’s safe to say the loss of the Kensington track proper and reluctance to run away from ‘headquarters’ makes things more difficult for running in Sydney.

The ‘best’ track in Canterbury is under-utilised, provincials in Hawkesbury and Scone get a standalone Saturday in late autumn but nothing more, while Sydney seems to go through the motions.

While the weather can’t be made to go away, matters are made worse when wet tracks see considerably high numbers of scratchings on bog tracks. This results in smaller field sizes with key runners removed, poor punting propositions, and situations where horses are winning via jockeys choosing the right ground rather than the best horse.

Can this be good for turnover?

Yet the TAB are unlikely to be keen to lose Sydney tracks for any sort of extended period, and punter traditions aren’t meddled with lightly.

Perhaps though, even the ATC executive and staff would enjoy a break for a few weeks, while provincial tracks get their day in the sun. ATC members might be displeased but facilities at Randwick should still be made available.

Is there a solution to the quagmire? Do you punt on winter racing?