What a joke the Bankstown track is , their major meeting and the track is a DUST BOWL....No wonder the place is in a shambles , haven't they heard of a WATER TRUCK.....
With due respect to all who work hard at Bankstown. There are too many tracks in Sydney and one needs to go. I don't think it would survive without the income from the conference and function rooms. I personally think some serious thought needs to be given to the future of this track. I doubt that this will happen (serious thought , that is) . This is just a personal observation , how I see the future of this track. In all seriousness , I don't think it has a future.
The water truck broke down and had to wait for a council truck to come .
Have whoever you want on but don't ever have yourself on
With all due respect, but it being their biggest night of the year, don't you think it would have been appropriate to check the water truck a day or two beforehand, to allow it to be fixed/maintenance work if needed? Or this was done and it was literally something that happened on the night...??
Seems we have debate about the Bankstown track every year after the Treuer for one reason or another.
Not a good look, but I've no doubt one of the critical pieces of the truck broke down ie: truck engine/gearbox other drive line stuff or the water pump/connection/sprays. In short there are quite a few bits that can let you down without warning, and unfortunately for the club this happens to occurr on their big night. Bigger clubs have a back up water cart ( and once upon a time Bankstown was one of those bigger clubs but not these days).Originally Posted by Flashing Red
I think the learning from this is you probably are gunna struggle to get anyone from the council to respond to your urgent need for a water truck on Saturday night without prior notice.
Thing can come and bite you on the bum from out of the blue, but to balance that hindsight is a always a great perspective.
Cheers,
Dan
I've seen plenty of dust thrown up during races on many a track in the past, but last night at Bankstown was severely ridiculous. The horses running mid pack and beyond must have sucked in plenty with the amount of air that horses inhale while running, I would hate to see what their lungs look like when they cooled down. No consideration given to them. The important thing is that 'the show must go on'.
To top things off half of the lighting in the stable area weren't functioning.
I think the worst part of the night was the pathetic crowd.So much for Bankstowns biggest night of the year.All that was needed amongst all the dust was a few tumbleweeds to fly across the track.
The best part of the night is when a cop car pulled up and 2 officers got out and headed towards the stables.There were some nervous looking participants as they walked past
The future of racing at Bankstown is bleak.Everything about the place is dirty,unkept and worn out.No one will invest a packet of cash to upgrade the place for no return. We need to set aside nostalgia and move on. As it stands now the place is a black eye for harness racing in NSW.Even the extremely poorly run and attended Bankstown trotting club have distanced themselves from racing at the track. In truth both are dying a slow death. Whether the area is used to develop, turned into a sports park, a cemetery or given to Obama for another US military base really doesnt matter because anything is better than the status quo
Amen to that . Someone has got to step in with the Bankstown club. It's been completely left behind in modern harness racing and needs to go. The land is worth a lot out there and I am sure that the council and developers would be more than willing to help out with development ideas that do not include a harness track. The track has absolutely no place in Sydney these days , just like Harold Park.
If the Bankstown club want to continue to exist ( in name only) do what the Bulli club does and run meetings out at Menangle , just like the Bulli club does on Mondays. Just as the Miracle Mile was transferred with great success to Menangle , so should future Truer Memorials.
BTW, I'd love to have seen a video of the shocked faces of a couple of those current "industry participants" when the cops entered the stabling area.
Last edited by David Summers; 12-05-2011 at 05:13 PM.
I count myself as lucky to have seen Christian Cullen absolutely destroy the field to win the Miracle Mile at HP then 8 days later step out and guts & glory it al down the stretch to win The Truer at Bankstown. Those were without doubt the most impressive back to back wins by any horse that I've ever seen. For CC to post the time that he did on that track with it's tight, flat turns etc...he still holds the Truer record as I recall...it was absolutely incredible. I had an epiphany that evening you know, right there in that crushed red brick stuff marshalling yard. I came to realise what most of the Kiwis already knew, that CC was an out and out superstar with all the trimmings and then some.
Another very well known horse now broodmare that I saw race at Bansktown for the first time ever was Sabilize, the dam of no less than Sushi Sushi. It was September 8th, 1992...and the water truck must have been similarly buggered that night because there was red dust blowing everywhere then too.
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