Winning Post - 1500m: This section won't have a bearing on the way races are run nor finishing position unless there was abnormal findings. That wasn't the case, the coverage is good and it walked as a Good 4 with only minimal marking.
1500m-800m (back straight): Only minor wear and not much fill to speak of. Coverage continues to improve as we get deeper into Spring and this section also walks a '4' with no discernible pattern.
1300m-800m (chute): Lanes 3 and beyond are cleaner and have far less sandfill but don’t feel quite as compact. Without rain there won’t be much difference. but with heavy irrigation it might mean the fence is slightly inferior in this section.
800m-400m: I felt lanes 1 and 2 were a bit rough and lanes 3 and 4 were probably the pick. You can see some wear and tear out wide from jump outs and trackwork and that pretty much covers the outer half of the track. I thought you might see a few edge off the rail from this point.
400m-Winning Post: The outer half of the track has quite significant wear as it does in the preceding section. Lanes 1 and 2 has more fill, particularly on the turn and I thought lanes 3/4/5 were the pick of them. Right out wide came into play at the last meeting and there's some chance a few might look for that ground again. The coverage is fair but will improve over the next month and it walks a '4'.
Verdict: I think it will race in the '4' range with mild conditions forecast over the next 48 hours. The sprinklers came on towards the end of my walk (close call but they missed) so I can't see an upgrade on the cards. The last meeting here was three weeks ago and the rail was in the same position. Most of the winners came down the middle of the track and it won't surprise me to see them leave the fence again on Saturday.
