were winners coming from the outside, the middle and the rails”
track exceeded our expectations, there
had different profiles and drying capacities.” The renovation work to the course cost A$25m (£11.25m), almost half of which was spent on the track itself. The other work included the building of state of the art horse stalls and parade ring, a tunnel to connect the parade ring to the mounting yard, a flood wall and a stunning winning post (alone costing A$500,000).
The turf was laid on 300mm of a specialist soil profile designed so that it would retain 9% moisture. “The soil came from Nyora in Gippsland (approximately three hours drive south west of Melbourne),” explained Mick. “We did a lot of testing during the reconstruction; we tested all the material in and out, twice, and if it didn’t comply it was rejected. A third of the material was rejected and had to be reblended; so, it was costly but, in the long run, it will prove to be cheap.” Under the soil profile is 100mm of bluestone and below that a total of 25km of herring bone drainage. These feed into a collector drain that has a pumped storm water system attached. The previous system relied on gravity and the course was at the mercy of the river level to drain in the event of flooding. “All the drainage runs across the track at a 45 degree angle, so any rain falling from the outside of the track has got to cross four drains to reach the collector drain on the inside,” Mick continued. “In the new track we have also designed in a fall of 1.5% in the home straight, 4.5 % on the first bend, 2% on back straight, and 2.5%/3.5%/2.5% transitional on the top turn, which also evens out the running for the horses, particularly on the bends.”
Mick has over 25 years of racetrack
expertise behind him, working for the Melbourne Racing Club before moving to Flemington in 2002. I suggested that the track will be a fitting legacy to pass on to future generations (one of whom was accompanying us on the walkabout, Craig Isaacs, the Trainee track manager). Mick didn’t agree, “The drainage and profile is spot on, so that’s ok, but I reckon after ten years we will need to re- turf; it would just be a case of tickling up the top to get the root system going, there’s a lot of organic matter in there that will blend up and grow with the new
68
material. I would never advocate re- seeding, I tried that once in about 1989, it was just a disaster. It’s a cheap man’s way of doing things. I know sometimes there’s a budget you have to work with, but it does allow a lot of poa in very quickly. I really believe the way forward for these major tracks is to strip the turf off every ten to twelve years. They need to allocate the money to do it the right way.”
And did the new track perform well, did it live up to the high expectations? “To be honest, the track probably
exceeded our expectations,” said Mick proudly. “There were winners coming from the middle of the track, the outside and the rails. We had two meetings before the Carnival - the first one in September, we thought it would cut up, but it didn’t, so we were surprised then. At the second meeting in October, we thought it would race really well, but they raced out wide for some reason, and we got a bit of a battering. So, leading into the Carnival, we didn’t know what to expect, but to the track’s and staff ’s credit, who’ve done a lot of work in the last month, it raced really well.” The day after the first day’s racing, Melbourne was hit by a freak thunderstorm, dropping 28mm of rain on the course in less than twenty four hours. I asked Mick if there had been any concerns about its affect on the track just two days before the Melbourne Cup itself. “I don’t think there was any stage did we doubt that the track would be alright,” was the response. The going on the day was officially declared good. “In fact, we applied 6mm of water during the night following Cup day, as part of our planned maintenance,” he continued. “We mowed between race days at 100mm, we used the heavy roller on the Wednesday and Friday, applied irrigation of 6mm on Cup and Oaks nights (Tuesday and Thursday) and another 3mm on Friday night before the last day's racing.”
Mick has 26 full-time groundstaff. At this time of the year, leading into the summer, six of them are working at night just on track irrigation. In addition to the main track there are two further grass training tracks on the inside, which takes four of the team to water those, and the other two are watering the artificial tracks.
“To be honest the
Craig Isaacs and Mick Goodie The grass tracks, for the time being,
are irrigated direct from the mains supply, whilst the water for the artificial tracks comes from the Maribyrnong river which borders the complete back straight. In the past the course has suffered flooding and racing has had to be abandoned.
“In fact,” continued Mick, “In September we completed a two year build of a stone flood defence wall, a metre wide, two metres high in places and around 2km in length; and each stone was laid by hand. “The new drainage system, coupled with the flood wall, has effectively flood proofed the track and will ensure racing can continue in any weather.” Mick has strong views on how a racecourse should be irrigated. “We’ve got a 30 metre boom irrigator, towed by a tractor. I don’t use sprinklers, I refuse to use them,” he emphasised. “I started using boom irrigators in 1993 and have used them ever since. I can control exactly the amount of water that’s going on the track, it doesn’t matter where the wind is I can just offset it. Some of the older automated sprinklers lose their strength towards the end, and can start putting 6mm on but finish putting on 8mm.”
During Carnival week Mick’s staffing levels are increased to 67. “We have a good relationship with the guys at two neighbouring tracks, Greg Barker at Mooney Valley and Paul Downes at Werribee. They have a week’s holiday at their place to come here to help out. Their experience and know how is invaluable.”
And what about maintenance work on race days itself? “Forty or so of the team were out on the track doing repairs between races, putting divots back and so on,” explained Mick. “But, to be honest, there wasn’t a lot to do. There were a few deep scars, but these were repaired with special tools we’ve had made. We push it into the ground where there is damaged turf, remove a plug eight to ten inches deep, then replace it with another plug using the fresh turf from the inside of the track.”
As part of the course renovation, a special turf nursery area was created, it was laid with the same turf mix and the same soil profile to allow for repairs to the track. “It’s only been down seven
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