VAAL THURSDAY 09 JANUARY 2025

There's an inspection in the morning so let's keep the fingers crossed

It's racing heavily now in Pretoria 

Please be advised that the current pen reading at Vaal is 29, and the going is soft; however, there are no waterlogged areas at present. A decision regarding tomorrow's meeting will be made in the morning.

If no rainfall occurs overnight, gallops will take place at approximately 7:30 AM. However, should we experience overnight rainfall, it is unlikely that the meeting will proceed.

Meeting abandoned!!

How bad are the tracks these days?

Was Turffontein worked on during the winter? Sure they used both tracks all winter (might be wrong)

I still wonder how it is possible that they race in the UK on what looks like much worse conditions (looking at the TV pictures) - so either the Gauteng tracks (Vaal and Turffontein - let's not even discuss the shambles at Greyville) are not being maintained properly (read 'as to the like of the SA jocks') - or the SA jocks are spoilt (and I know the safety aspect comes into play - but are the UK jocks just taking much higher risks than our boys ?)    

......imo 4Q are not at blame.....all their tracks survived the rather harsh more resent heat wave periods after a much milder winter....they seemed to have gotten their grass green during the high heat and total absence of rain coupled with local water shortages.....while local parks and gardens were totally devoid of  any grass....and now constant days of rain....parks and gardens waterlogged but also now very green again

I'm no expert but wouldn't it be possible to cover the track or at least most of it with covers much like they do a cricket pitch. The areas not covered could have some sort of drainage 

......you only need a small tarp to cover only the pitch.... others can cover the entire ground.....but how much tarp will one need to cover a race course 2km long and 50-70m wide....where would one store it....how many people required to lay it and move it.....