Reply With QuoteCertainly a problem. Both Melton and Menangle tonight just about every race the sectionals made it impossible for anything to come from behind.Originally Posted by Messenger
Once again we see evidence of this tonight, sure it is the way with harness racing but our metro track would be much better if we added 100m to the home straight and back straight - we own enough land don't we?
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Certainly a problem. Both Melton and Menangle tonight just about every race the sectionals made it impossible for anything to come from behind.
Ha ha! I recall the late Graeme Lang being an "advisor" to HRV when it was being developed. His "advice" was to look to the future and build a 1400 metre track. That was not the advice they wanted to hear as part of their "industry consultation" so they built what they saw fit a 1040 metre track with 2 x 205 metre straights and 2 x 315 metre turns. So, 60% of race times are spent going around banked bends.
Those banked bends, we were assured at the time, would neutralise leader bias and allow horses to maintain speed when running wide on the bends. In reality the only way you can make a quid from a horse running wide on the home turn is to set up a hot dog stand on the apex and flog them to peckish drivers with no hope of running down the leaders.
Just for good measure HRV, in its wisdom, rotated the plans 90 degrees to ensure any poor motorist lured off the highway into Tabcorp Park would see the spectacle of watching (or trying to) a field of horses racing into the glare of the setting Sun. I'm not sure who the architect was but I reckon they had previously been involved with the layout of Docklands stadium - as anybody who has attended and endured an AFL football match at the venue on a sunny afternoon with the roof open will attest.
Not to worry, they saved a fortune at Melton by not needing a roof on the less-than grandstand. What is the point of a roof when the prevailing south-easterlies and southerly gales blow rain and sleet straight into your face during weather less pleasant than tonight's. Dr Jack Kevorkian would love the design; suicide by stealth due to bronchitis or pneumonia.
But you are correct Kev, the straights are too short. Most of the "Euro" style tracks in Victoria share this problem and it is not new. I attended the Bunbury Pacing Cup meeting in WA in 1981 with the industry's most respected horseman (why he was in my company is another matter). The track had recently been reconfigured and the Club's president (Ern Manea before he rose to more prominent positions) was extolling its virtues. My most respected horseman mate did not agree saying the horses spent too long going around corners. To prove this, he produced his stop watch and timed horses laps in consecutive races. I forget the times but the percentage of time racing around bends was worse than Melton.
Could this have been an underlying reason for the introduction of sprint lanes? When HRV went on its spending spree of upgrading most country tracks to 1,000 metres they were almost exclusively of the "Euro" design with a sprint lane. The exception is Ballarat which, I believe, was a Bede Ireland design as is Albion Park in Queensland. It is 40 years this spring since Albion Park was rebuilt and the track has stood the test of time. But in Victoria, we love our big bends!
Of course, watching the Hunter Cup was like watching the velodrome. If I was to talk through my pocket, perhaps the Head of the River. No driver was game enough to challenge the favourite, perhaps a reflection on receiving $7,500 for running last. Why bother testing your horse? Not bad petrol money, eh? I prefer only paying stakes down to fifth instead of robbing the winner to reward the also-rans.
Hot dogs, get your hot dogs!
Yes, there is plenty of land at Melton but none that would be viable for extending the straights by 100 metres. That is because the track was never built on a blindingly obvious north-south axis where there is an abundance of land.
Great post Trev but I still think there is room for some extension.
I must say I am a bit of a hypocrite as I would still entertain a return to the Showgrounds (where the racing was more exciting - in this old memory anyway)
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
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