The Marburg Pacing Association has received a new International Harvester, road grader with a primary purpose to broaden the capabilities of the track maintenance team at Marburg.
Marburg Pacing Association Secretary Denis Smith said harness tracks, like the horses that race on them, have changed somewhat over the last six decades.
“There is now more selective breeding, but racing is still based on the old rule of putting the best to the best, and hoping for the best, which has produced faster horses,” he said.
“The difference now is that computer records and matching programs allow the breeder to choose which mare goes to which horse in fairly easy fashion.
“The tracks have had to change to accommodate the overall increase in, and obsession with speed and the flat tracks of the early 1970s.
“This new grader will replace the club’s current grader which requires extensive repairs or replacement, and either action would only provide a machine which is slow and extremely difficult to operate, accompanied with a bill of up to $35,000.”
Former Marburg Pacing Association President Steve Towns saw the new grader arriving on a neighbour’s property at Lower Mt walker, and he purchased it for $13,200.
“The track machinery list at Marburg now includes a Massey Ferguson tractor costing $110,000, a Camfab track conditioner costing $65,000, a Louisville water truck costing $8,000, a 20-tonne powered road roller which was gifted from Albion Park and now the grader with a cost of $13,200,” Denis said.
“If the grader was purchased new at this time, the cost would exceed the total value of the current assets.
“Racing Queensland and the Marburg Club has $196,200 invested in maintaining a track which can, in the space of two to three hours be converted from a racing surface to a much softer and long term horse friendly training track.
“There is another huge benefit which comes with the grader, which is that many of the 120 plus trainers who are based in the Marburg footprint have their own tracks, be it for jog tracks or fast work.
“This should help raise the overall performance of local hobbyist trained horses.
“We must never lose sight of the Marburg aim to provide as level a playing field for trainers whether they have millions behind them or just one family member who is also a racehorse.
“People lose sight of the fact, that on a proportional scale, based on disposable income, the working family with one horse, has a vastly greater investment in the game than the megabuck man who pays up for twenty with a leading professional trainer.”
With all tracks requiring upkeep and grading, the Marburg club also intends to make the grader available for hire to trainers at modest rates.
