Zanzibar- one of the six leaders that won at New Plymouth
So we had one of the strongest biased track seen for ages, at any track, at New Plymouth yesterday. Six of the seven winners came from leaders!
So what clues did punters get before the meeting that it would so strongly favour front runners? Michael Guerin did all he could to notify punters that there could be an on pace bias on the Mail Run on Saturday morning. But should we be getting opinions from Track managers, on what they think the track will play like? After all, they work on them full time! There was no video on Loveracing or no indication of it anywhere else.
It was left up to punters to look for any bias. On 20 August 2024, on the same track there was a strong leaders bias in similar conditions, and the rail had come back to the same position. Moisture Content measurements are published on loveracing under “Other meeting news” which is good information, but does nothing to indicate track bias. There is a tool called the Going Stick which is used to find such biases, and used extensively in Australia and other countries. My understanding is that some NZ tracks were issued with these. They are ideal for indicating any likely bias but are not used or any information published using them.
I’ve walked many tracks and was trained by the one of the best, top rider, David Walsh. Anyone walking them, even with a normal stick that easily penetrates the ground, who knew what to do, would have picked up that bias yesterday. It is vital information for punters and they should be given a full track report. They have it in Australia and they should have it here.
