Phmuelela has imported a bank of state-of-the-art starting stalls from Australia for use at Fairview Racecourse in the Eastern Cape.
According to Phumelela’s horseracing executive Patrick Davis, it had become necessary to replace the old bank of starting stalls at Fairview. After due investigation, it was decided to buy SIMTRACK starting stalls, which are in use at Randwick in Australia, Longchamp and Chantilly in France and at several other racecourses around the world.
“The new stalls were landed at a cost of just over R1-million – the same price and of better quality than stalls we could have had manufactured locally,’’ said Davis, adding that the deal also included a four-berth “practise training gate’’.
Fields at Fairview are limited to 18 runners in races down the straight and 16 in races round the turn.
The new bank of starting gates looks different to the stalls local racegoers are used to with the front gates extending lower in order to reduce the chance of horses rolling under the gates. The back gates are also much deeper than normal, ensuring a safer environment for handlers.
The stalls are fabricated using high tensile, light weight and virtually maintenance-free materials with the front and back gates made of stainless steel. Easy to move, the bank operates hydraulically and the mechanism is virtually silent. The stalls are opened and closed with an electric push button, rather than the lever operation, with a back-up manual standby system for emergency use.
Luciano Passerini, Phumelela’s general manager Eastern Cape racing, said that the new stalls had been well received and that globetrotting Felix Coetzee had said to him after the last Fairview meeting that the gates gave him “great confidence”.
The stalls were designed by SIMTRACK director Tony Sims who has been involved in the design and manufacture of racecourse equipment since 1958.
He said: “My involvement in the design and manufacture of racecourse equipment is well known, spanning more than 40 years, and I believe that this new machine marks the most important advance in starting gate design for some time. In particular the hydraulic system eliminates the old mechanical lever type operation making the gate more reliable with no maintenance required.”
SIMTRACK is a South Australian company specialising in the manufacture of starting gates and running rails for the horseracing industry.
