Readers, especially those that do their own form, should take note that Sandown now races on two circuits, Sandown Lakeside, which is the inner track and Sandown Hillside which is the outer track. To avoid confusion, just think of Hillside as the Sandown track with the rail out 20 metres. We believe that both circuits will continue to favour strong horses and that results will influence future runs elsewhere.

In the Winline GTSi program that we use for our form, we have defaulted to our old Sandown values and won’t change until we see a few hundred results in about a year or so.

One important change for readers is that when you now look at a form guide for past track winners, all Sandown form prior to January 25th is no longer taken into account by AAP or the RSB who are the sources of all Australian race form. If you are using a system that requires the selection to have previously won or placed at Sandown it WILL NOT SHOW UP and in addition, a placing at Sandown Hillside will not count as a placing at Sandown Lakeside in your form guides.

The difference between the old Sandown circuit and the new Lakeside circuit is that the back straight has been realigned and is entirely new ground and the inside 15 metres of the straight is also new turf.

The Hillside circuit is essentially the same as the old except that it has a new home turn, and slightly longer home straight. Both circuits will have similar characteristics to the original circuit but we suspect that horses that may have held on to win narrowly on the old Sandown track, will not be able to do so on the Hillside.