Racing bar raised- Evergreen Turf general manager of sports surfaces Peter Manning and Pakenham Racing Club track manager Brendan Short inspect the old Pakenham surface, watched by club chairman Don D

By Garry Howe
PAKENHAM Racing Club’s new racetrack will boast a ground-breaking surface following a deal with Pakenham-based Evergreen Turf.
Club chairman Don Duffy announced that Evergreen Turf had won the contract and described them as the preferred tenderer after an exhaustive selection process.
Mr Duffy said he was thrilled the contract had been won on its merits by a local company, which has operated out of Pakenham since 1982.
Pakenham’s new 2400-metre track will be bigger than Melbourne and Sydney’s marquee racecourses at Flemington and Randwick.
Following a construction period of two years, Evergreen will be responsible for maintenance of the new track under the guidance of general manager of sports surfaces Peter Manning and the club’s track manager Brendan Short, with regular inspections by world-renowned turf experts John Neylan and Ian Trevethan.
“We are looking forward to a close working relationship with Evergreen,” Mr Duffy said.
“The contract also includes on-going maintenance of the track.”
Evergreen Turf managing director Rob Davey said the new racing surface would raise the bar for the racing industry.
Mr Davey said the reinforced sand profile surface, employing the StaLok system of reinforced synthetic fibres with an organic base of coco-peat, would allow the track to race in all weather conditions.
He said it would prevent any future race stoppages due to the track surface.
“This track will set the standard for all tracks in Australia and worldwide,” he said.
Many turf tracks in the United States employ the StaLok system, including the famous Santa Anita circuit, and this will be the first in Australia.
Mr Manning has led the company’s push into this area and closely monitored test plots on the Mornington racecourse over the past few years. Mr Davey said Evergreen had been working in the racing industry since 1990 and, now with a staff of 40 out of the Pakenham headquarters, worked on many racetracks throughout Australia and overseas. He said this was mainly in the area of problem solving, like the contract the company won to repair the Randwick surface after it hosted the Sydney Papal visit in 2009.
Outside of racing, Evergreen is involved in all manner of sporting surfaces. Mr Davey said the company was currently building 11 new football grounds on the other side of Melbourne, and laid the surface at Melbourne’s new AAMI Stadium, which is considered the best rugby league surface in Australia.
The Pakenham Racing Club’s move to the new track, on 608 acres between Nar Nar Goon and Tynong, was scheduled for 2013, but will be delayed for up to a year after the sale of the existing racecourse site fell through.