PAKENHAM Racing Club will next month set a record for the number of meetings held in a racing season.
The club will hold its 17th fixture of the 2010-11 season on Saturday 16 July. The season’s 16th meeting – the highest number held at Pakenham in a season – will be held this Sunday. Sixteen meetings were held at Pakenham last year.
Pakenham was originally scheduled to hold 11 meetings in 2010-11, but wet weather and track maintenance issues forced meetings to be transferred from Yarra Valley, Kyneton, Werribee and Moe.
Pakenham Racing Club chief executive Michael Hodge said the past season reinforced the need for a second synthetic track in south-east Victoria.
“The wild weather and a number of engineering issues have really wreaked havoc in the racing industry this year … and it drives home the need for the second synthetic racetrack in Victoria, particularly in the south-east,” he said.
“We have been fortunate that the combination of missing some of the bad weather and a terrific job from our track maintenance team has allowed us to run these meetings, as it would have been a terrible situation for stakeholders if they missed out on a pay day.”
Racing Victoria is investigating two possible locations for the next synthetic track in Victoria, Pakenham’s new racecourse at Tynong and Caulfield.
Geelong is the only club with a synthetic surface and it has had more than 12 meetings moved there because of its all-weather capabilities.
It has 44 meetings scheduled for the coming season, including 32 on the synthetic surface.
A synthetic racetrack is a fibre-like binding material that looks like a dirt or sand surface and is durable than grass in more extreme weather conditions.
Mr Hodge said the Pakenham club had designed the Tynong track to feature a purpose-built synthetic racecourse design – the first of its type in Australia. The racecourse will also feature a 2400m world-class turf track.
“Tynong would be the only synthetic racetrack in Australia designed as a synthetic racetrack and not an afterthought constrained by the grass track around it,” he said.
“Our design features a range of chutes enabling a greater range of starts, and promotes a safer standard.”
Work on the new Tynong racecourse will start this year.
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