Cover image courtesy of Sportpix
The feature meeting at Rosehill racecourse on Saturday was abandoned after 17 mm of rain fell overnight, with a forecast of 50 mm of rain expected during the day. The choice created much discussion with eight black types races including the G1 Vinery Stud Stakes and G1 Tancred Stakes involved, and was further exacerbated by the rain amounting to only 8 mm more.
On Monday, Racing NSW steward Steve Railton reiterated Racing NSW’s official comment from Saturday morning. “The stewards inspected the track at 6am and again at 8am, and the deterioration was already evident. With the forecast, we felt we’d only get one or two races completed. The surface condition and the visibility are the two major issues we look at. If the sun had been coming out, then it’s a different story, but that’s not what we saw and not what was forecast,” said Railton.
Everyone wants to go racing
Late on Saturday afternoon, Australian Bloodstock tweeted a video showing a hole in the track which led to concerns about safety of the participants.
“I’m always one who isn’t critical of track managers. We spend enough time (at trackwork) to know that when the senior riders gallop on it, they know what they are doing. Jockeys rarely want the big prizemoney Group 1 days to be postponed. It’s hard to be critical. Everyone wanted to race,” said Australian Bloodstock’s Jamie Lovett.
“The video got sent to us, and showed the track was a concern. How often do you see a meeting where they race one or two races, then abandon? The BOM got it wrong, but we are all guided by forecast and instead of 50 mm, they got 8 mm. But the big concern is the welfare of the participants.
“Given that we didn’t have a lot of rain going into the meeting, it shouldn’t have been that bad. But having spent a lot of time (at the track) in the mornings, the feedback of the senior riders is important, and if the seniors gallop one or two (horses) over the track and come back with a negative report, then you look at the forecast.”
Lovett’s Australian Bloodstock have several runners affected by the abandonment, including Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) in the G1 Tancred Stakes.
Jamie Lovett | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“Vauban is our headline horse. He was very good first time out and is our main focus. I do quite like the mare in the Vinery, Real Class. I’m looking forward to seeing her and she’ll enjoy the ground.”
Real Class (NZ) (Vadamos {Fr}) is a 3-year-old filly trained by Chris Waller who was purchased out of New Zealand where she won the G2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes on New Year’s Day. She ran seventh in the G2 Phar Lap Stakes last start.
“It’s all the other things that the armchair critics don’t think of. If you call it early, a trainer can still gallop a horse to be ready for Tuesday. There’s nothing worse than having a meeting called off late and a horse has missed a vital piece of work. If they’d called it off mid-morning or later, they couldn’t have moved it to Tuesday without a lot of scratchings.
“... If you call it (a meeting) early, a trainer can still gallop a horse to be ready for Tuesday. There’s nothing worse than having a meeting called off late and a horse has missed a vital piece of work.” - Jamie Lovett
“At the end of the day, no one got hurt. It’s the risk vs reward. And often there’s no right answer – we are dealing with weather.”
Punters prefer it dry
Bookmaker Rob Waterhouse offered the opposite opinion, feeling that the meeting should have gone ahead. “The nicest thing you can say it that it was cancelled on the suspicion that it might keep raining. From 9am onwards they had 8mm according to their website,” Waterhouse said.
“It’s not unprecedented (to call it early), although it is unusual.”
Last week's Albury Cup meeting was abandoned at 7am before a race was run and this week's Wellington Boot was also moved from Sunday to Monday due to rain without a race being run.
“I estimate that I would’ve marked the track a 5 or 6 and perfect for racing, but it must also be said that the course curators are under great pressure from various connections to produce softer tracks. It’s disgraceful that we cater our track to the soft European horses. We have a good breed of horses (in Australia). Why do we have to change the rules to suit the overseas horse?
Rob Waterhouse
“Overwatering a surface creates a problem that doesn’t need to exist. If you water a track and then you get rain, it deteriorates badly. If you regularly water a track, the grass roots don’t grow deep and if you dig into it, the grass gives away easily. If you let it dry out, then the roots grow deeper and stronger.”
It’s not just about weaker grass. “Soft tracks and false rails also create lanes and this reduces turnover because people won’t bet on a biased surface. People bet less on slower tracks too. I did the figures on horse’s final career starts, and horses were the least likely to have their last start on a good track and most likely on a heavy track.
“If your horse is a front runner, you will prefer drier tracks. If they run on from the back, they need more luck which means needing more randomness and wetter tracks provide that, but racing should have the best horse winning, rather than trying to help the outsiders.”
As often happens in racing, when something unusual happens - like the abandonment of a major racemeeting - there are as many opinions as there are participants. And when the track involved is Rosehill, which has been the focus of the media due to the sale process, the opinions can sometimes forget the basic tennant of racing. We want our horses to compete in a safe environment.
