International collaboration at the heart of ARMA conference

TurfTrax Managing Director, Mike Maher, has recently returned from a repeat visit to the annual conference organised by the Australian Racecourse Managers Association (ARMA) designed to celebrate excellence in racecourse management and held this year in Adelaide. Hosted by the South Australian Jockey Club at Morphetville Racecourse.

More than 200 delegates convened in the South Australian capital for the four-day event in August which included a rare opportunity to ‘inspect the pitch’ at the Adelaide Oval.

Delegates at the 2026 ARMA conference get out on track

The visit provided Maher with the chance to connect in person with clients from Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Hong Kong in the same venue and to engage with potential new clients and partners.

Discussions, both formal and informal, reinforced the industry's growing focus on objective measurement, irrigation efficiency, sustainability, and data-driven decision-making for track and turf management demonstrating a strong industry appetite for objective, data-driven track and turf performance monitoring.

Delegates visited the iconic Adelaide Oval one of the world’s most picturesque sporting venues

A notable theme throughout the conference was the continued recognition of technologies developed and deployed by TurfTrax and its partners.

“Dubai Racing Club’s Mohammed Yousif made a particularly strong acknowledgement of the value delivered by GoingStick, WeatherTrax, and Hydrosight”, said Maher.

“Similar positive feedback was echoed independently by several Australian track managers during the conference, reinforcing the industry's recognition of the benefits of objective measurement, weather intelligence, and irrigation management technologies.

“I have long held the view that international collaboration, particularly in data sharing, remains key to achieving global standards and understanding.  This year’s ARMA conference clearly demonstrated a positive move in that direction.”

A souvenir from TurfTrax’ first Australian venture

Maher is no stranger to the Australian racing scene and first introduced the TurfTrax technology to track managers in the region 20 years ago when he attended the eleventh edition of the Australian Racecourse Managers “Hunter Valley” Conference held at Newcastle Racecourse, New South Wales.

TurfTrax Managing Director, Mike Maher, introducing the TurfTrax GoingStick to an inquisitive audience of Australian track managers in 2006

He said, “It was a pivotal event in the development of the GoingStick and our wider business.  The enormous amount of interest and enthusiasm for a technological solution to track management was a true inspiration and endorsed our early belief that there would be global demand for the range of services we envisaged for the future.”

TurfTrax weather station in situ at Al Rayyan Racecourse, Doha

The foresight proved correct and during this year’s trip Maher was able to stop off and see clients at Dubai Racing Club, and Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club where he oversaw new WeatherTrax installations at Al Uqda and Al Rayyan racecourses. He said, “The conditions particularly in Qatar were a little challenging and the weather station equipment was soon recording an air temperature of 48OC which gives some idea of the extremes the build to be capable of withstanding.”

WeatherTrax Live recording sweltering temperatures at Al Rayyan Racecourse, Doha