Due to the inclement weather of the past week, the first race meeting on the new all-weather Polytrack surface at the Sunshine Coast will be conducted tonight with the original meeting transferred from the grass surface at the track.
The previous era of the cushion track … a different surface to the Polytrack … was a cause of much derisiveness within the racing industry in Queensland and it will be very interesting to see how the new, different and vastly improved surface is accepted by owners and trainers alike.
The first meeting is unlikely to provide any definitive answers to that question with many sure to prefer to have a first look at its use as a racing surface from a distance.
As it is, the transferred meeting, which features a seven race card, has as many scratchings as it has runners (there are fifty-nine of each), but that heavy scratching toll can only be put down to the meeting transfer, in part, as, with the rainfall figures earlier in the week and the prediction of more heavy rains today (which has yet to materialise), many trainers would have pulled the plug on their runners anyway.
The first race is set to jump at 6.08pm with the last race scheduled for three hours later.
