Australian Turf Club officials are certain Randwick’s course proper has never looked better as the famous racetrack prepares to host a Villiers Stakes’ meeting for the first time in four years.
And not even 40mm of rain which has fallen on Randwick for the week up until Thursday morning can put a dampener on preparations for Saturday’s important meeting.
“The course proper is in the best condition it has been for the past 10 years but Randwick’s biggest problem is the perception that has built up in the bad years,” the ATC’s general manager for racecourses Lindsay Murphy said.
“There’s that underlying stigma.”
As the neighbouring and much-maligned Kensington track remains out of action, the course proper will reopen for racing on schedule.
It’s return for the Villiers meeting is the result of a lesson learned from 12 months ago when officials were forced to switch the fixture to the Kensington track.
“Last year when we renovated the course proper it didn’t come back in time because we got a lot of rain,” Murphy said.
“At a pinch we could have raced on it but it wouldn’t have been a great surface.
“With this year’s renovation we did it a fraction sooner and we weren’t as severe on the track.”
The 2011 and 2012 Villiers meetings were transferred to Warwick Farm when Randwick was closed during the construction of a new grandstand.
Randwick track manager Nevesh Ramdhani placed a numerical rating of seven on the track after a Thursday morning inspection.
“We’ve had a fair bit of rain, admittedly not as much as in other parts of the city,” he said.
“But we’re not quite at the saturation point because it is draining so well and that’s because it has been recently aerated.”
The rail will return to the true position for the first time since the Epsom Handicap meeting on October 4.
