Durbanville’s ridge and furrow, one of the main reasons for the Cape Town course failing to attract enough runners, is to be eliminated as part of the grand design for the racecourse and the Milnerton training centre, writes Michael Clower.
Hassen Adams – exciting plans
Kenilworth Racing director Hassen Adams announced in November that a synthetic track would be installed alongside the grass one. He hoped then to have the work done by the end of this month but it has taken longer than planned to put all the necessary arrangements (including finance) in place.
Adams, the prime mover behind the project, is emphatic that it will all go ahead and will be accompanied by the replacement of the turf course.
Milnerton racecourse
He said: “Durbanville was originally established as an amateur racecourse used only during the winter months and so the corrugations didn’t much matter.
“The trainers still want to retain a grass track there and so what I would like to do is rip up the existing surface and take out the ridge and furrow.
“That won’t be expensive but putting in a polytrack will be. However I want to get an extension of the boundaries so we can have both grass and polytrack.
Durbanville
“I regard it as my job to make quite sure that we get the best out of Durbanville and it looks as if I will get the Milnerton development through quite quickly. That will give us enough money to be able to do all this.
“I have already secured the necessary environmental approval to make the Milnerton training track a circular one and, when that is done, we will have three tracks alongside one another – grass, polytrack and sand.”
The existing training track is less than five furlongs and riders have to start thinking about pulling up when they have only gone three and a half. As a result trainers have to use a race to get their horses fully fit. The new one will be around ten furlongs in circumference.
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