Track Manager Spills the Beans on How The Valley Track Will Play!

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Fri 23rd October 2020

The Valley is home to 18 races in 24 hours, with the track pattern largely a mystery with the predicted rain to come on Friday evening and throughout the day on Saturday.

The track is currently rated a Good 4, but there are significant showers predicted to fall during Friday’s Manikato Stakes meeting, and overnight heading into Saturday’s Cox Plate Day.

Track manager Marty Synan spoke to racing.com, and said there is a possibility the track may play in the Good 4 to Soft 5 range depending on the weather.

“The forecast is for 20-30mm of rain overnight and stopping around about 10am and winds of up to 40km/hr throughout the day,” Synan said.

“If the winds do stop at 10am and we have no rain throughout the meeting, the track may start off in the Soft range and hopefully improve throughout the day.

“With the meeting being tonight, the track may get a bit of wear and tear on the inside and you may see horses getting off later in the card but earlier in the day on Cox Plate Day, I expect them to be on the rail.”

“The track may get downgraded to a Soft 5 if that rain comes throughout the meeting,” he said

“The rail will be in the True position for Friday’s meeting and I expect the track to race pretty even.

“It’s been four weeks since we’re last in the True and it has a great cover of grass and is pretty even right across from the inside to the out.

“On Saturday, the rail will stay in the True position for the 100th running of the Ladbrokes Cox Plate.”

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From Muswellbrook to the Melbourne Cup, Will is mad about all things racing and sport. Spent countless hours in the backyard as a child pretending to be Glenn McGrath, and has been known to get deadly late swing with a taped tennis ball.