The apparent removal of the Vaal middle rail for today’s racemeeting has caused unhappiness amongst punters with questions being asked as to why this was not published for the information of race players.
Vaal courses
The Vaal has three turf tracks – an inside and outside strip as well as the Classic – and today’s eight race meeting was published as being run on the outside track
But with the rail gone, the inside and outside track are now effectively one and the horses are really running on a different track to that published.
The impact on punter calculations is exacerbated by the notorious Vaal draw bias, which is factored in by many players. The outside draw is widely favoured on the outside track.
The Sporting Post has learnt that the outside rail was moved in 12m and the inside rail in by 4m to ‘test’ the track ahead of The Grand Heritage 28 runner field on 1 October.
While the move shows some advance planning and trainers were apparently told at a recent Industry Liaison Committee meeting, it seems no thought was given to informing punters.
A change of track usually results in bets being voided. This seems unlikely to happen in this instance.
As if to aggravate matters, and probably coincidentally, a few well backed short-priced fancies went missing on the afternoon.
That’s not fish!
As one seasoned punter put it:”It’s tantamount to booking a table at the Grill ‘N Butcher and then finding out when you are seated that they only serve fish!”
The move has been hailed a communications fail on the part of the racing operator.
We approached Phumelela for clarity and a comment and will publish same when received.
