Australia's First StaLok All-Weather Track At Grafton

The Board of the Country Racecourse Development Fund (CRDF) has formally approved financial assistance of $1.32million (+ GST) towards the construction of a new StaLok All-Weather training track plus strategic re-alignment of the course proper and 'B' grass surface at Clarence River Jockey Club's Grafton Racecourse.

In announcing the funding package, CRDF Chairman, Gordon Lindley, stated that the current approval represents the culmination of almost two years investigation into polymer-based all-weather compounds.

"Representatives of the Club, CRDF and one of our consultants have been examining five alternative products since early 2005. This has involved numerous racecourse inspections, liaison with racing bodies both in Australia & overseas plus examination of relevant technical data to ascertain performance characteristics under a range of environmental conditions", he added.

Following the short listing of two compounds, the Club and CRDF jointly selected Stabilizer Solutions' StaLok All-Weather as the preferred product for Grafton.

"This development represents a major step forward for country racing in NSW as it will be the first polymer-based track constructed outside a metropolitan or provincial centre and indeed represents the first StaLok All-Weather track in Australia", said Mr Lindley.

"The product does not require irrigation and as such, represents a major cost saving for the club given its current dependency on town water", he confirmed.

A further desirable property of StaLok is its ability to be blended into the profile in-situ without requiring off-site batching.

"Understandably, the Club sees this attribute as delivering simple longer-term maintenance and associated financial benefits", added Mr Lindley.

In addition to construction of the new all-weather training track, the site master planning process also highlighted geometric deficiencies with the course proper (particularly the home turn) plus 'B' grass track, and the project represents a logical opportunity to concurrently rectify these issues.

It is anticipated that construction will commence in early August with completion by the end of the year. Work will be structured to minimise the impact on racing and as a consequence, the club is currently examining the potential transfer of only two race meetings.

• More: More horse racing news
• Race Betting: Place a bet with IASbet