Tiffani Brooker just laughs when she is referred to as the leading Polytrack rider in Queensland … with good reason obviously as the first and, to date, only meeting on the Polytrack surface took place at the Sunshine Coast on Friday night.
Feedback on the new track, coming from Brooker who was the only jockey to win two races on the opening night, was obviously going to lean towards the favourable given her results, but she did qualify her comments while giving some interesting insight and opinion into how the track played.
‘Firstly, it was definitely a massive improvement from the Cushion Track,” offered Brooker, who is based at the Sunshine Coast, “so they have done well in that regard. It’s great that we have got the Polytrack and can transfer meetings to it in cases where meetings on the turf would have to be abandoned.
“Even when the track is very heavy and racing could possibly go ahead, they could transfer the meeting to look after the grass track, if necessary, especially when we are doing Friday nights and Sundays here with the big fields … which is a real bonus given that it is predicted we will be in for a very wet summer.
“It is true I was either in front or close to the lead most of the time on Friday night so I can’t really speak for everybody who was further back. When I was in behind them the kick back didn’t seem to be any trouble at all, although I feel it did favour the front-runners a little bit, but I do think most horses still had their chance.
“Some people will say there is a local advantage for horses that are trained on the track … but, having said that, the first race was won by a horse from Brisbane.”
“The track was safe. The track is a fairly hard surface, but, importantly, I find it a very even surface. It’s so different to the grass and heavy going. When the grass is heavy and wet it chops up and is slippery and everybody is looking for the fast lane. With the Polytrack you don’t have to do that because it is an even surface, and you also never have to worry about hitting a hole or anything like that.
“Every horse I rode handled it so I can say this from my point of view, their action on it was fine and it didn’t field that much different to racing on a Good 4 on the grass.”
It is early days with racing on the Polytrack, of course, and the data, feedback and assessment on the character of the track still has a long way to go before it clearly is defined but it has already saved one meeting and, doubtless, it will fulfill that role again many more times in the future.
For Brooker herself, she followed up her Polytrack double on Friday with a win at Ipswich on Saturday and yet another home track double at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday to continue her fine run of form.
“It helps when you are riding good horses and winning races gives me confidence. I’m getting support from a wide range of trainers which is really good. Again, when you ride winners you get more rides.
“I’ve been back about twelve months. While it is good now, its obviously taken time for me to re-establish myself.
“The riding ranks in Queensland are a lot tougher than a couple of years ago, so to come back in tough times and to re-establish myself from scratch … it has been tough, but I’ve worked at it and things have improved.
“Things are going well.”
