The last big money reconstruction at Goulbourn (opened by the Chair of GRNSW) involved a silly 450m bend start (now 440m) and no attention to the flat turn into the home straight - which would also have involved the 700m boxes.

That does not auger well for the professionalism of the overall design and engineering job.

Does anyone know ?

I still have had no reply to my email from Mr Mestrov n many are in the same position.

The Government is in love with us again; at least for another seven months.

Splash, splash.
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EXTERNAL LINK

This would likely improve the sport in NSW, lol.

Did you see that GRNSW/GWIC have closed Lismore? They say too many injuries supposedly. Two dogs put down last week. (One was 50 month's old 4yrs-2months, and 90 race starts. The other came up from Victoria, and hadn't won a race in 14 starts in NSW. (Last win over 12 months ago).

Wentworth Park is not well at the moment! Five (5) dogs scratched from the Summer Cup on sat/day night. Including Poco Dorado, most with "Burnt Pads". Barcali copped 10days on Sat/night for "Burnt Pads". 6 dogs suffered injuries, 1 fell, 1 copped a FTC. Are they going to close Wenty Park??? NOT ON YOUR NELLIE!!!

The 1st race contained 2 maiden dogs! Boy! haven't our standards slipped?

They required 5 Stewards! & 2 Vets on Sat/night. Who is wasting OUR money?.

They introduced "Pathways" racing. Guaranteeing the WORST PEREFORMED. What other Sports promote and REWARD the POOREST performers? (Other than Politics).

Baird's legacy to close us down is SLOWLY trickling though the system.

What do you think ?

This episode has something in common with Tamworth, also closed earlier for safety reasons while it was assessed by some unknown experts with unknown qualifications and mysterious objectives. Whatever conclusions they reached are also unknown.

Perhaps they were the same group that attended to Gosford and moved a bend start 400m trip to a 388m bend start trip with considerable bias. The new 520m first turn, shared with the early part of the 388m trip, is also causing many runners to spear off unpredictably.

Anyway, it is not difficult to pinpoint a prime reason for injuries at either Lismore or Casino most of their trips also feature bend starts which automatically create their own interference.

More puzzling is that both tracks have previously undergone rebuilding costing hundreds of thousands of dollars (mostly for flood reasons), yet all they did was to put back what was there before ie the same old bend starts. Hello!

Australia wide surveys reveal that Lismore incurs way above average fall rates together with a high level of distanced runners. Casino, where some Lismore meetings are now being shifted, is even worse. (Casino is an Australian rarity in that it has no straights and all racing is on a continuous circle).

Lismore 420m incurs falls in 6.2% of races, compared to the national average of 5.5%. The 520m trip is higher again at 10.3%. Casinos figures are 8.7% and 12.8% for 411m and 484m races. Similarly, for both tracks distanced runners are also well above the national average.

In these days of tight money you also have to ask why these two tracks exist only 40km or so apart. One could easily do the same job, especially if it was designed better.