Mike Maher, Managing Director of Turftrax, is pictured here (second from left) with the great So You Think on a recent business trip to Australia. Turftrax is the UK company that provides technology to racecourses in the form of the Going Stick, Going Maps and what we particularly focus on in this interview - Sectional Timing and Tracking technology. In a highly informative and interesting Q and A, Mike tells us how the technology works and how things are progressing with regard to the UK and Ireland moving towards what many see as long overdue -  sectional timing in races.

Mike, how did you become interested in horse racing?

I have always lived close to Newmarket (in Cambridge) and my extended family are all from Ireland, my Grandfather on my mothers side was from Kildare near to the Curragh, so being interested in racing and having the odd punt just seemed to come naturally.

What was the first big race you recall seeing and what horses do you particularly remember growing up?

Like most people my first memories are of watching the Grand National, I think I was allowed a 50p each way bet every year shortly after I was out of nappies! I remember my dad picking the winner two years running in the mid eighties, West Tip followed Maori Venture the following year, the latter at a very decent price if I remember correctly. The other horse that first springs to mind is Dawn Run, not only because of her Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup wins but because of the Foster and Allen song about her, my dad was a good friend of Tony Allen’s and used to play guitar with him many years ago.

Do you get to go racing much on a non-business level and if so what have been some of your favourite days racing over the past year or two?

Luckily I watch quite a lot of racing as part of the job. I particularly enjoyed Carracciola winning the Cesarewitch a couple of years back because I backed him at 80-1 each way on Betfair in the morning and obviously Newmarket is my local course. I think hardly anyone else had backed it as I seemed to be the only one celebrating in the stands after the race.

Working at last years Melbourne Cup Carnival was one of the best experiences of my life, which I am hoping to repeat this year. Seeing Yeats win his fourth Ascot Gold Cup was pretty special, and seeing the other three wasn’t too bad either.

How did you become involved with Turftrax?

When I started working for TurfTrax it was because of my background in agriculture, at that time we used some technology to map and analyse soil. In 2002 someone needed to trial the GoingStick with racecourses. I was chosen to do the job because I already had an interest in racing and was liaising with the racecourses to generate the Going Maps. At the time I thought it would be a very interesting challenge to trial the GoingStick. From 2006 onwards I became Director of the Course Services part of the business and in 2008 when we restructured the company I became Managing Director.  (Continued....)