KEY POINTS:
The watering of racetracks close to raceday simply HAS to stop.
Let's just say right at the top no one wants the job as a racetrack curator these days - no matter what you do someone will blue about it.
But if you put your hand up for
the job, you have to take the consequences.
The track at Awapuni on Saturday - and let's not forget we're talking about a group one raceday here - was terrible.
It had been watered to the extreme and it set up a racing pattern that meant there was only one fast lane and it was just to the outside of the middle of the track.
If you were on the inside four or five lanes you might as well have been at the beach in Honolulu.
In the midst of a drought, it came as a big surprise to everyone that the Awapuni track rating on Saturday was 2.5, which is a beer glass of water tipped on the track away from being declared dead.
As the programme wore on it was clear the track, at least the inside half of it, was literally dead and in some places worse.
As the jockeys came back to the weigh-in room after the first race, Jason Waddell was asked what the track was like and he said, "It's a disgrace".
Strong words, so you asked Michael Walker.
"It's terrible," said Walker. "On the way to the start you could hear the squelching as your horse's feet hit the ground."
Murray Baker, who won the first with True Emotions, was within earshot and immediately raised the alarm.
"That means my 2-year-old (Fully Fledged) is no hope."
On a firm surface, Fully Fledged looked extremely hard to beat in the $200,000 Ford Manawatu Sires Produce. He went up to win at the 250m, but battled the last 100m and finished just out of a place.
It was the story of the day.
A number of issues come out of this.
First, are course curators being dictated to by club committees or general managers when it comes to a watering policy?
Are some perhaps allowed too much latitude with no checks and balances put in place?
That's probably different in each case, but the fact remains that three of the biggest meetings of the year - firstly Ellerslie, then Trentham on Wellington Cup Day and now the biggest day of the year in Manawatu - have been scuttled as fair racedays for punters by what is clearly inappropriate irrigation.
To be fair to the Auckland Racing Club, they now appear to be getting it close to right.
When full-scale irrigation was introduced into horse racing it was for the purpose of growing grass.
Today, it is being used to manipulate the give in the soil.
Grass is the perfect compaction deterrent for horses, not soft soil.
Get the grass cover right and you don't need to water close to raceday.
Water up to three or four days out and let the grass do its job.
But of course that's applicable only if the grass IS grown properly.
There was a magnificent sole of grass at Awapuni on Saturday and it would have been wonderful so see how horses appreciated it if the watering hadn't been done.
Interesting point here, and it hasn't escaped some astute observers.
Some of our better tracks this season have been on the smaller racedays when the course curator is probably a farmer.
Farmers know how to grow grass and do you know why? Because they go broke if they don't.
It's the best incentive anyone can come up with.
The late Gordon McVeigh was the course manager at Ellerslie for something like 27 years and ask any of the trainers who raced horses there during that time and they'll all tell you it was the best they raced on.
McVeigh knew his track so well he almost had names for individual blades of grass. His one strong theory through his reign at Ellerslie was: "Don't over-water a track".
Water grass, particularly young grass, said McVeigh, and the roots will stay close to the surface looking and waiting for that watering.
Starve grass of water and the roots will go deep in search of moisture.
Get a track with a deep-rooted grass system and not only will it later take watering, said McVeigh, horses can't plough it up like some of our tracks today because of the strength of the grass roots.
Opinions on what should be done with racetracks are like backsides - everyone's got one - but clearly something has to change.
There was a $500,000 Pick6 at Awapuni on Saturday. Many race fans did their study and placed their bets assuming a perfect track surface before they saw the first few races and therefore did their money cold.
The track, and therefore many of their horses, essentially didn't play the way they'd planned.
It's just not good enough.
* * *
That said, Il Quello Veloce deserved her $200,000 Ford Manawatu Sires.
She'd been dead stiff so many times.
This time, the racing pattern on the day was set up for her.
She got back as usual, got up and around a few approaching the home bend and Noel Harris knew exactly the blades of grass he needed to tread to find the fast lane.
Il Quello Veloce has had a few hard races and paraded almost like she was slightly over the top.
But being the professional she is, once Noel Harris was on her back she picked herself up and did probably the best preliminary of all.
Group one races are a good time to find your right luck.
The sprint Il Quello Veloce produced over the last 200m was remarkable. Group ones are every trainer's dream.
This one cost trainer John Sargent a bundle.
Sargent took classy 3-year-old Red Ruler to Sydney on Wednesday and stayed on until yesterday to ensure he settled in well.
He watched the Manawatu race in the Royal Hotel in Randwick and had to shout French champagne for the entire bar.
When called on his cellphone five minutes after the race the background noise was only slightly less than that created at Awapuni by Il Quello Veloce's 18 owners.
Fully Fledged will keep. He has a lovely stretch about him and should be a magnificent 3-year-old.
So should second placed Captain Fantastic, who rider Michael Coleman said, wasn't entirely happy in the conditions.
San Bernadino went as well as expected back on a left-handed track to take third and All In Brawl (4th) is yet another who looks as though he will contribute to what should be a massive 3-year-old spring.
* * *
Sir Slick, well what can you say?
He had to win Saturday's $100,000 Lawnmaster Awapuni Gold Cup and did it, well, not brilliantly, but then he never does anything brilliantly.
He just does it. And he doesn't do one thing he doesn't need to. Sir Slick is about to head overseas to Hong Kong and Singapore, when we will definitely find out how good he is.
He's one horse we've never been able to accurately gauge how good he is. What we do know is he's too good for our horses at weight-for-age.
* * *
Weekend Hussler - what a horse.
He clearly had trouble going the Rosehill way around and couldn't win at the 200m, but won anyway.
That's the hallmark of a great horse.
The connections of Red Ruler, Rios, Nom Du Jeu and company will be pleased Weekend Hussler is headed for the Doncaster and not the 3-year-old races from here on.
* * *
Jim Gibbs tapped the mat as one of New Zealand's greatest horse trainers in the most appropriate way when his last runner Volscar won at Tauranga last week.
The master trainer got a lot of satisfaction out of that, but he would have got just as much out of Valpolicella's win in Saturday's $100,000 The Oaks Stud Manawatu Classic.
When asked a decade ago what his No 1 principle in training a racehorse is, Gibbs said: "Don't panic. Never press the panic button."
He would have been proud on Saturday of Valpolicella's trainer Roger James, who, of course, he taught the finer points of training to.
James didn't press the panic button when he struck problems with Valpolicella heading to the Oaks at Trentham.
They weren't serious and a lesser trainer might have pressed one. Who knows, perhaps even won the Oaks because Valpolicella is a talented staying filly, but James waited for this one race on Saturday and struck gold.
She looks every bit a Queensland Oaks filly.
* * *
Hayden Tinsley was suspended for a week on a careless riding charge in the Manawatu Classic.
He pleaded guilty to the charge after allowing his mount Three Rings to shift out with 200m to run and make contact with Petushki.
