Dean Diedericks – upbeat and fairly positive
After a week of winter storms and the loss of this past Wednesday’s Kenilworth meeting, the local racing operator is keen to go ahead with their eight-race programme tomorrow and will be delaying a final decision until possibly Saturday morning early.
The Sporting Post contacted Kenilworth track management following enquiries from readers.
Two Cape meetings have been lost with the first month of the season not yet over.
“We have had a terrific amount of rain and the water table is very high,” said Kenilworth Racing General Manager Dean Diedericks earlier.
While Friday has dawned bright and sees blue skies with scattered clouds and a forecast high of 19 degrees, with no further rain forecast for the next seven days, Dedericks would not be drawn on a definite yes, but conceded that he felt ‘positive.’
“We are looking at the track this afternoon. The pen reading is in the mid thirties and there are two particularly bad patches – one at the 1400m and the other around the 600m marker on the sprint track. We desperately need the sun and the wind also helps, although it is not very strong. If we hold out on a decision until the morning, we will probably gallop a few horses and then make a final call. I am pleased that there is no rain forecast, and that in itself makes the outlook positive. We want to race and are doing our level best,” he said.
