KEY POINTS:
Surely it makes sense for New Zealand and Australia to unify penetrometer readings.
With this great push we're seeing around co-mingling betting pools between the two countries - which can only lead to greater riches - why allow any element of confusion.
The two scales of penetrometer readings being used are totally different.
Yesterday morning the Waikato Racing Club posted on the NZTR website a track reading of 4.2 for tomorrow's Foxbridge Plate racemeeting.
We all know that's slow and heading towards heavy.
If tomorrow's A$200,000 ($232,912) Liston Stakes meeting at Caulfield came up at 4.2, that's dead and closer to good under their readings.
A punter sitting in a TAB in Wagga looking to have a bet at the Te Rapa meeting this afternoon would have no idea what the track rating was if they relied solely on the penetrometer.
Similarly, very few New Zealanders have any idea how to read the Australian penetrometer readings.
We should simply adopt the Australian system. But it's not quite that black and white.
The New Zealand system was developed by Turftech's Jim Murphy, who refined the original penetrometer designed in France in the 1970s to the point of including variations from track to track, essentially tweaking the readings to allow for a variance in track surface density.
That doesn't happen in Australia.
A 4.2 reading at Caulfield will not necessarily be the same racing surface as a 4.2 reading at Flemington.
The Australian system was developed by Sydney Turf Club track manager Lindsay Murphy.
"Almost all punters in Australia will refer only to the comparative readings relating back to the same track," said Murphy.
"If they're racing at Rosehill they will only use previous Rosehill ratings."
Penetrometers are not used in Queensland, which tries to be different from the rest of Australia in every area and Western Australia simply hasn't got around to it yet, but Murphy says both those states will be virtually forced to adopt the readings. In Australia a 1 reading is fast, which course managers steer away from manufacturing these days. A reading of between 2 and 3 is good, 4 - 5 dead, 6 - 7 slow and heavy is 8, 9 and 10.
Our readings are 0.5 to 2.0 fast, 2.1 - 2.5 good, 2.6 - 3.5 dead, 3.6 - 4.5 slow and 4.6 plus is heavy. Murphy says this week's course managers' conference in Melbourne, being attended by eight from New Zealand, would be a good time to start talks about unifying the readings.
There is a slight track-to-track difference in readings in Australia.
But that's preferable to punters scratching their heads.
