Race abandonments bring frustrating week for NZ thoroughbred industry

It’s been a frustrating week for the thoroughbred racing industry, with four race meeting abandonments in as many days.

Pukekohe’s Wednesday meeting was abandoned and transferred to Sunday following issues with transporting the starting gates to the South Auckland meeting, while Hawke’s Bay’s meeting on Thursday and New Plymouth and Rotorua’s meetings on Saturday were abandoned due to deteriorating track conditions as a result of adverse weather.

An investigation is currently underway into the cause of Wednesday’s abandonment at Pukekohe, with Northern Raceday Services looking into a contingency plan around vehicle breakdown.

"The disruption on Wednesday was due to an unforeseen issue with a fuel pressure valve on our towing truck en route to Pukekohe Park," Northern Raceday Services said in a statement.

"Despite our rigorous maintenance schedule, the fault could not have been anticipated. In our 47 years of operation, covering hundreds of race meetings and trials, this is the first time breakdown has prevented us from fulfilling our duties.

"We are acutely aware of the impact this has had on all stakeholders and an investigation is underway to clearly identify the cause and to implement measures to prevent such incidents in the future."

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing’s chief operating officer Darin Balcombe said Wednesday’s abandonment was an extremely rare case, but it has prompted the industry to further investigate their starting gate delivery protocols.

"I know the starting gates have been operating for 47 years and it is the first time that (vehicle breakdown resulting in meeting abandonment) has occurred," Balcombe said.

"They are a specialist vehicle that tow those gates, so you just can’t hook on a truck and move on. It is very unfortunate with that one, we have asked them (Northern Raceday Services) to look at their contingencies and see what they can do and whether there is a possibility of delivering the gates the day before just to make sure we don’t end up in the same situation."

Balcombe said the industry has progressed to having starting gates permanently based at the major tracks in the country to help mitigate transport issues.

"We have got them (starting gates) at all of our main tracks now, so they don’t have to travel,” he said. “With the Te Rapa gates, we might move their other set to Matamata, which would be another track then which doesn’t have to travel."

Severe rainfall led to the three other abandonments this week and Balcombe said the silver lining of each situation was that decisions were made early on, prior to most trainers transporting their horses to each venue.

"At Hawke’s Bay on Thursday, more rain than forecast fell the night before and there was surface water on the track, so the decision was made nice and early so people didn’t leave home, in the main," Balcombe said.

"We had about three horses that were on track from Auckland, other than that the rest of them hadn’t travelled. So that was pleasing that the decision was made nice and early.

"Rotorua (on Saturday) was fairly straight forward. There was surface water on the track, so an early decision was made to call that one.

"At New Plymouth, we had a horse gallop around there this (Saturday) morning. The Stewards rang me just after 6am and were very concerned that the track was water-logged, and the horses were getting in really deep into the track and it was forecast to rain through to lunchtime.

"The prudent call was to call the meeting off at that stage for horse and rider welfare, and the high possibility of visibility issues through the day.

"There is no greater drain on the industry than sending horses to the races and then everyone having to pick up and go home without a race. It costs a lot of money for the connections and for the industry, as we pay compensation to all of those connections.

"The good thing was that the decisions were made very early prior to anyone leaving home that hadn’t gone the night before, which was the best situation for us."

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing are currently working with the TAB to reschedule both of Saturday’s abandoned meetings.

"We are looking to reprogramme those next week and we are just awaiting on TAB approval,” Balcombe said.

The synthetic tracks at Cambridge, Riccarton and Awapuni were developed for such weather-related meeting abandonments, however, Balcombe said transferring the turf meetings to the polytracks still requires time and would also come at a detriment to field sizes.

"Logistically, it isn’t quite as easy as changing the track, there are a lot of contractors and other things that need to be in place to do that," he said.

"We can do that (transfer) with about 24 hours’ notice. A lot of the time it hasn’t started raining until that point, so you would be making a decision before the weather hits. You are never going to get that 100 percent right, so it is very hard to predict that.

"Especially for Saturday race meetings, when you go to the synthetic you will pretty much be decimated with scratchings. I have spoken with two or three people this morning who said they wouldn’t have run on the synthetic. I just looked at Ballarat the other day over in Australia that moved their turf meeting to their synthetic track on the Saturday, which was to be run on the Sunday, which were fields of 15 to 18, and they ended up with five to seven going around.

"The horses that go around on the synthetic go on them because they like the synthetic, and the other ones are generally looking for a heavy track, and they don’t tend to mix between each other."

Balcombe said the outcome of abandonments this week has been unfortunate and frustrating for the entire thoroughbred racing industry but it is something that has to be expected at this time of year.

"It (meeting abandonments) is frustrating, but we can’t beat the weather," he said.

New Zealand Trainers’ Association National President Shaun Clotworthy said it has been a frustrating last few days for trainers, but horse and jockey safety must come first.

"It’s not ideal, but it is out of our hands with the weather conditions, it is not safe for the riders or horses," he said.

"Trainers are very frustrated at the moment, but I am sure NZTR are going to do their best to reschedule things and add races in where they can.

"It is just one of those things that you can’t control and hopefully we can work through it into the better weather patterns coming up.

"It has been a good winter up until now, but it (abandonments) is something that you have got to expect at this time of year."

There is light at the end of the tunnel for northern trainers, with Pukekohe’s transferred meeting set to go ahead on Sunday, with the track rated a Heavy10 on Saturday morning.

Clotworthy will line-up half a dozen runners at the meeting and is hoping a couple of his chances can feature prominently.

"It will be deep no doubt, so there are a couple of chances in there like Aqua Man, he has been looking for this sort of track. He is a chance back in that (rating 60) grade," said Clotworthy, who trains in partnership with his wife, Emma.

"Quill got on a better track at Ruakaka last time and he might be looking for a bit wetter ground as well."

Photo: Nicole Troost