The night racing season commences in Launceston on Saturday, returning to the track for the first time since 14 June. Below is the relevant track information ahead of the meeting, accurate at 13:00 Friday 9 October.
- Rail: +9m 1200m to WP-remainder +7.5m
- Weather: Overcast (Rainfall: 23mm last 24 hours, 46mm last 7 days)
- Track rating: Heavy 8
- Peno: 5.39
- Rail last meeting: + 5m entire circuit (14 June)
- Pattern last meeting: This was the first meeting back following the COVID-19 shutdown and was affected by rain through the day. Read the meeting review here.
- Pattern last meeting in this rail position: 18 March, +9.5m 1200m to WP-remainder +7m. Not the exact same rail position but very close to it. The track raced well with early winners settling close to the speed but then able to come from off the pace later in the program.
Comments from John Burke (Launceston Track Manager)
On the track recovery since the last meeting.
“It’s been good, we adapted our practices with a lot of top dressing and a lot of verti-draining.
“Just kept the nutrition up to it and making sure we had good growth.”
On the expected track condition.
“I would say we will start on a heavy 8 with the potential to upgrade to a 7 (soft) during the evening.”
On the rail position.
“We were going to start in the true position but with the heavy rain forecast and having to back-up on Wednesday night we thought we would start out at nine (metres).
“We’ve pushed it out to the nine, they can make their own running out there and we will come back to the true for Wednesday night.”
On the racing pattern with the rail in the 9m position.
“It generally plays pretty fair, perhaps towards the front early and then down the outside later in the night.”