David Thiselton 

TRAINERS AND OWNERS as well as jockeys are ultimately responsible for reversing the myth that the Hollywoodbets Greyville polytrack has a bias towards the outside rail, which might have once possibly been true but is no longer the case thanks to the efforts made by chief track manager Kurt Grunewald and his team.

There was a period when the Hollywoodbets Scottsville straight course was known for it’s noticeable bias towards the inside but the turning point came when connections were no longer convinced that it was the better going and today jockeys do not feel compelled to dive for the inside path and thus exacerbate the problem by creating a worn path.  

Grunewald said having a spur in the past had not helped matters on the polytrack and elaborated, “It is such a tight corner the spur forced them to the outside.” 

The spur has been done way with.

Another change, in order to eliminate an argument that one harrowing machine is possibly heavier than another and is causing a bias, is the harrowing machines switch positions everytime they go on to the track i.e. from the inside to the outside or to the centre and this is done both when preparing for a meeting and when smoothing it out during a racemeeting.

A related accusation has been a light vehicle on the track when false rails are put up is causing a bias but there is no logic in this as ten times heavier harrowing machines and watering machines will soon follow its appearance. 

The company which were consulted when the polytrack was first laid advised that levelling the track by hand should be done once every six months. This is to eliminate such happenings as loose material, pushed out by the machines, drifting and accumulating. Hand levelling is a time consuming task as 2000m of track have to be covered but the team have recently changed the time gap for this task from six months to four weeks and aim to keep up that rate.  

The cooler a polytrack the tighter it is so there will be more kickback on hotter days. Therefore it makes sense for those coming from behind to switch to the outside or inside in the straight to avoid the kickback. However, this has nothing to do with better going. It is unnecessary for those in the front to drift outward and it arguably constitutes unfair riding.   

Watering during meetings is done in order to keep the track cool and thus limit kickback and with the limited time available the heavy watering machine is driven on the inside around the turn, because that is where the horses race, and is driven down the centre of the straight.  On the morning of a meeting the water truck will go successively on three positions down the straight, for example  outside, centre and inside. The harrowing machines will follow.

Grunewald told the story of how when the track was first laid ten ton trucks laden with material were on the track but the heel of a shoe could still be pushed into the surface which showed just how little impact such heavy trucks have on the give in the surface.    

An analysis of the last polytrack meeting at Hollywoodbets Greyville showed that horses were able to win from anywhere, yet the belief the outside was the place to be unfairly cost at least one horse a possible win and those who backed this horse would have felt hard done by. 

The first race was won by a horse who drifted towards the outside.  

The next was on  by a horse who skipped clear before drifting to the middle outside.  

In race three Space Oddity made her run down the centre to beat Port Adelaide just inside of her by 0,40 lengths. 

In race four You Deserve drifted to the outside from the centre to win by half-a-length from Top Me Up Holly who drifted to the outside rail. Third-placed Flying First Class could well have won but after switching to the outside with ample room in front of her she found her run blocked by the overall effect of three horses drifting towards the outside rail. 

Origami and Arrow’s Mark quickly proved it was unnecessary to go to the outside and finished first and second in the next race sticking to the inside rail in the straight. 

In the next race the winner Let’s Not Linger ran down the centre and fended off Hot Money who had the so-called dream run on the “golden highway” on the outside. Both horses started at exactly the same 25/3 odds.

In the next race Birdwatcher switched outward at the top of the straight for a run and running down the middle/outside fended off the horse on the outside. 

In the last race Running Freely made his run on the inside portion of the track beating a horse who was inside of him.