Racing: ARC looks to circumvent penetrometer rule

You may not get a penetrometer reading for Ellerslie tomorrow as a guide to your $300,000 Pick6 investments.

And that will be a good thing.

The Auckland Racing Club is making a brave stand against what it sees as a flawed system of advising the punting public of its track conditions.

The club is bound by racing regulations to provide a track penetrometer reading tomorrow morning, but after last Saturday's debacle the club is investigating its options in defying that ruling.

The ARC has for some time been disillusioned by the penetrometer.

Last Saturday it came up with a 3.2 easy reading when clearly it had to be worse than that.

Sticking to strict policy, the ARC posted its 3.2 reading, but after racing began the official rating quickly changed to soft then, with little rain to worsen the conditions, it was later downgraded to heavy.

Punters who had invested on the second half of the programme assuming the conditions were only easy were robbed.

When this week's Wednesday penetrometer reading said the track was just into the soft range and nearly as good as easy, ARC racing manager Butch Castles said enough was enough.

"We'd had 30-something mls of rain since the finish of racing on Saturday night so the track could not have improved from heavy, yet the penetrometer was telling us it has."

As a result the ARC has already defied normal practice by not posting a penetrometer reading on its fields on the NZ Thoroughbred Racing website.

"We've been telling trainers and everyone else that has enquired what our opinion of the conditions are."

Castles is aware providing an opinion rather than a fact-based reading is not ideal.

"But what do we do when we know that by giving the penetrometer reading we are providing misinformation?

"I'm not happy guessing, but what's the option?

"In hindsight, what we should have done last Saturday morning when the reading came up as 3.2 is post it as 3.7 or 3.8 and soft, but where is the integrity in that?"

Late yesterday Castles was attempting to arrange a horse to travel into Ellerslie late today to gallop on the course proper and have a senior jockey declare an official track condition.

Despite the penetrometer reading to the contrary, the Ellerslie track is heavy - it's simply a matter of how heavy.

Punters looking at the big Pick6 need to know.