Smithy's Sermon: Moving the Livamol Classic to Te Rapa deals tough blow to Hawke's Bay

I watched The Guerin Report last night, Mick Guerin's show, who was joined by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing CEO Bruce Sharrock - Mick asked some pretty hard questions and Bruce didn't dodge them, I think that's fair to say.

There were some answers that he couldn't give because he hasn't got the relevant information - one of those was where the Group 1 Livamol Classic meeting will be. Fast forward to today, we know now that it's been moved to Te Rapa. It was scheduled to be at Hastings Racecourse on October 12.

If there's any doubt about the safety, if there's any doubt whatsoever, then of course, you can't have it here in Hastings, which is a crying shame. It will be a massive cost to the course I would imagine, the racing club in particular.

It will also be a massive cost to the community - all the accommodation, the restaurants, the hospitality side of things.

It's a big day out - Livamol Day in Hawke's Bay - it's a highlight for young and old racing fans because they get to see the best horses in the country fighting for a really good prize.

And it's a party as well - it's a real occasion the third day of the Hawke's Bay Spring Carnival. Getting knocked on the head will have a significant impact on a lot of people - the implications are huge.

I also gleaned from that program, that whilst they wouldn't admit to it, I believe there was quite a bit of human error involved for last weekend's race meeting to be abandoned.

The climate building up to that race day was absolutely perfect - it was identical to what was building up for the first day, which was absolutely fine and there were no complaints. People were claiming what a perfect track it was to be racing horses on.

So, how did it go so wrong at Hastings where it became watered without any trouble from above? To the extent that it became slippery in one particular area, and that was the only area apparently that was watered.

How did that happen? I would imagine NZTR are asking questions about that.

This is a massive loss to the Hawke's Bay area, to Hawke's Bay Racing, and to the people of Hawke's Bay.

Tune into Ian Smith on SENZ Mornings, 9am-midday weekdays except Thursdays.