The new Durbanville surface was given a unanimous thumbs-up by the jockeys yesterday but the course’s reopening has been put back a fortnight to September 23 when it will stage the Settlers Trophy.

Phumelela boss Clyde Basel, after having a lengthy meeting with trainers, jockeys, owner representatives and officials, said: “There is now a wonderful future for Durbanville but the consensus is that we should give the grass two more weeks and return to racing here on September 23.

“We will then stage seven consecutive meetings at Durbanville while the three scheduled fixtures prior to September 23 will now be run on the winter course at Kenilworth.”

Justin Snaith provided six horses for the testing of the resurfacing and Bernard Fayd’Herbe, after partnering The Barry Burn in a 1 300m spin with Fake News (Anthony Andrews), said: “The course is awesome and is probably now one of the better tracks in the country.

“You would be able to stage big races on it and going through the first corner with its camber I felt that it is going to be so much better than it was.”

Snaith incidentally, said that the social media-hyped Fake News will make his long-awaited debut next month.

Aldo Domeyer, after riding Talitha Borealis in a similar spin with Lightning Trail (Grant van Niekerk), said: “At this point in time the course feels a bit superior to Kenilworth. The surface is smooth, it turns well and in the straight you can put your horse anywhere.

“It should make for fairer racing but it feels very firm and how tough it is I don’t know.”

Dean Diedricks, who has master-minded the resurfacing programme, was adamant that there is no question of opening up the course for weekly gallops in the immediate future. Most of the trainers agreed with this but some of them felt that the recommencement of racing should also be deferred.

Greg Ennion, speaking in advance of the meeting and its decision, said: “The course really needs the whole of September with the sun on it. It would be OK to race once a fortnight but we would be back where we started if we staged all ten scheduled meetings.”

The trial was much better attended than most people expected – although the racecourse thoughtfully laid on plenty of refreshments – and other trainers present included Candice Bass-Robinson, Vaughan Marshall, Glen Kotzen, Andre Nel, Paddy Kruyer, Riaaan van Reenen, Mike Robinson, Andries Steyn and Dan Katz.

Richard Fourie rode in the trial and Racing Association boss Larry Wainstein took an early flight from Johannesburg to watch it. Others present included senior stipe Ernie Rodrigues (“In time it will be magnificent”), Derek Brugman, Darryl Hodgson, Karl Neisius and NHA vet Lauren Brewis while the media representation included a Tellytrack broadcasting team.

The new-look racing surface has taken ten months to complete and involved removing the original turf, levelling out the old ridge and furrow, cambering or cross-falling the bends and replanting with a kikuyu-grass sod purchased already fully grown.

By Michael Clower