Home ground advantage.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
How often do we talk about this in sport?
There can be various idiosyncracies which can sway a contest the way of the players and teams more familiar with a venue.
It is not always quite the same in the world of gallops.
The biggest advantage for a horse when racing at the same complex where it is trained is arguably that it does not have travel a big distance on race day.
When it comes to racing on Ballarat Turf Club's synthetic track, the statistics suggest there's a bigger factor than travel in play.
Surely it comes down to these being able to be trained on the race-day surface day-in day-out - providing a genuine "home ground" advantage.
Outside trainers are also able to avail themselves of the facility if they wish, but there's nothing like being on the spot.
Ballarat stables are dominating meetings on the Polytrack this season.
The top five trainers on the track are Ballarat based:
17-Tony and Calvin McEvoy
12-Ciaron Maher and David Eustace
5-Shay Keating
4-Paddy Payne senior
3-Henry Dwyer
What better pointer would you want?
These standings were reinforced on Monday when six of the eight races on the Ballarat Polytrack were won by hometown trainers:
+ Rosalia (Paddy Payne): 2 starts on the track, 1-1-0
+ Great Boulder (Melody Cunningham): 2 starts on the track, 1-0-0
+ Annie's Comet (Shay Keating): 3 starts on track, 1-0-0
+ Azoustic (Brady Cross): 3 starts on track, 1-0-0
+ Mietta (Tony and Calvin McEvoy): 2 starts on the track, 2-0-0
+ The Squire (Ciaron Maher and David Eustace) 1 start on the track, 1-0-0
And to add to that, the most successful horse on the Ballarat all-weather track, Ronay, finished second to The Squire.
Trained by Paddy Payne, Ronay has eight wins, five second and three thirds from 24 starts on it.
So with Sportsbet Ballarat's next synthetic race meeting on Friday, what can be expected from hometown trainers?
They have 32 acceptors for the eight-race card.
Take a look at these hometown records on the track:
+ Black Bolt (Ciaron Maher and David Eustace) 1 start, 1-0-0
+ My Boy Birmingham (Tony and Calvin McEvoy) 5 starts, 3-2-0
+ El Santo (Dan O'Sullivan) 5 starts, 1-0-0
+ Steel The Moment (Shay Keating) 5 starts, 1-0-1
+ Jeljami (Ciaron Maher and David Eustace) 5 starts, 3-1-0
+ Murrumbidgee River (Ciaron Maher and David Eustace) 1 start, 1-0-0
+ Grand Quill (Brian Lawlor) 9 starts, 1-2-1
+ The Difference (Tony and Calvin McEvoy) 2 starts, 1-1-0
+ Sold Tha Car (Julie Scott) 1 start, 1-0-0
+ Broadway Lane (Mitch Freedman) 2 starts, 1-1-0
+ Red Hawk (Tony and Calvin McEvoy) 1 start, 1-0-0
+ Hunka Hunka Harry (Daniel P Kelly) 3 starts, 2-1-0
+ The Bont (Shay Keating) 12 starts, 12, 2-0-0
Surely there's a winner or two among them.
