Grass greener for turf racing in Geelong revamp

GEELONG Racing Club is likely to attract an extra 28 turf meetings a year with work starting on extending its course proper.

The outside fence at Geelong has been extended 4m, allowing for added rail changes throughout the season.

It means Geelong will now be one of the widest tracks in Victoria at 27m.

The upgrade comes after Geelong lost its synthetic racing to a new course at Ballarat.

Geelong Racing Club boss Daniel Salter said the expansion works were being completed while the course went through its annual turf management program.

“It will give us three or four extra rail movements throughout the year,” Salter said.

“There is also work on the corporate area we use on Geelong Cup day. We want to make sure its an improved facility to use on cup day.

“There is a new retaining wall going in, backfilling, reseeding and levelling areas and putting irrigation systems in. Then they will start working their way down the straight to the turn.

“The works should be completed by the end of April. “It’s going to be fantastic.” Salter said the club would lose “a lot of the smaller Tuesday meetings” now that it did not have synthetic racing.

But he was confident it would not have a significant financial impact on the club.

“It won’t have an impact on our key race dates, like Fridays, Sundays and those better corporate and wagering days,” he said.

Salter said the synthetic track would be replaced with an extra fibre sand training track, while the grass expansion would also allow trainers more turf gallops.