Winning Post-1800m: It's usually quite wet in this section and that's the case again. Some fill across the inside few lanes but nothing too significant. Not a crucial area to analyse but walked well into the '6' range.
1800m-1200m: There is some wear and marking here with a touch more fill against the fence. That said, I don't think it will have a material impact on the racing. This section sat just in the '6' range and I thought it would race well here.
1200m-800m: I felt the inside two lanes might race a little slower here. There's slightly more fill underfoot but if jockeys can target the tyre-marks they might be able to get through it without as much effort. Lanes 3,4 and 5 were all quite uniform and I had a slight preference for those lanes. At present the difference is not huge but any rain might cause a bigger descrepancy.
800m-400m: Approaching the turn I felt the inside couple of lanes might race a little slower. Won't surprise me to see horses course out to lane 3 and beyond at some point. Later in the day hard up on the fence might come back into play as they wear out the wider lanes. Lane 2 felt slower than hard up on the fence. I thought it walked a genuine '6' track.
400m-Winning Post: I didn't mind hard up on the rail here, there is more sand-fill but I didn't think it walked any slower. I felt lane 2 would be inferior ground, there's a strip of thicker grass and it feels quite wet underfoot. It may result in them coming to lane 3 and beyond in the straight but I'm not against hard rail if someone tries that later in the day. Felt in the '6' range here too.
Verdict: Overall the track felt like a Soft 6 to me, with the back straight being slightly better than that rating. There is a reasonable amount of wear and tear in most sections as you'd expect at this time of year and I wouldn't be expecting to see fast times across the board. In terms of a pattern, I thought lane 2 and potentially 3 were inferior from the 800m to the winning post which might result in jockeys steering towards the middle of the track. I wasn't totally against the fence albeit there is more fill in that lane. If there's no rain then it might not race any slower despite the fill. With a decent shower or two I'd be confident the middle lanes will be the best going.
