First Synthetic Meeting for Cambridge

A frenetic week for the Cambridge Jockey Club will culminate on Wednesday when New Zealand’s first official racemeeting run on a synthetic track will be hosted at their complex. According to loveracing.nz, construction of the Polytrack surface began in January 2020 and, despite some hiccups caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown two months later, the Club has been successfully operating jump-outs, trial meetings and morning trackwork on the surface since October. Cambridge Jockey Club chief executive Mark Fraser-Campin is excited about the transformation of the entire training complex as it readies to host the historic event, and he is praying for fine weather. While Fraser-Campin is making sure the creature comforts for all participants will be up to scratch, Wednesday’s meeting will not mark the official opening of the track as a racing surface. “We’re treating Wednesday as a soft opening and we’re looking at having an official function and the like at our racemeeting on July 28 where we will have our $40,000 races in play,” he said. To add to the pressure, jumping trials were scheduled for Monday, with 170 horses set for barrier trials on Tuesday. Fraser-Campin noted, “Once this first meeting is out of the way I think we will see the benefits over the coming months and even though we will learn a lot from the day, I’m confident that the Industry will embrace what the surface has to offer to us all.”