Racing: Chief stipe defends decision to scuttle day

Windsor Park Plate 1600m, L-R number 7, I Do (white horse) ridden by Opie Bosson in 2014

Chief stipendiary steward Ross Neal says his staff made a decision to abandon the Hastings race meeting based on the best interests of the riders and horses.

Neal, of Wellington, said the stewards came to the conclusion based on all the information in front of them.

"We have a lot of valuable horses running around today so we don't want them to be put in a perilous position with a horse in front of them falling or, indeed, they themselves.

"It's a very hard decision but we make it in the interests of rider safety and we're cognisant of the fact that horses have travelled some distance to get here on a major race day," Neal said.

The authorities had had enough evidence on a horse slipping shortly on straightening up free of any interference.

The stewards had offered jockeys from previous races time to air their concerns.

Some riders didn't feel entirely comfortable with the surface.

Jockey Opie Bosson, he said, also had reported that his mount had "shifted" near the 800m mark.

The club had made a submission to use the groundhog or ground breaker to rough up the slippery surface but several jockeys had proposed they would have ridden conservatively regardless.

"We took a cautious approach to their riding [which] raised questions about the competitiveness of the race meeting."

Postponing the meeting wasn't the stewards' call once a track was deemed unsafe, Neal said.

"That's a matter for the club and the racing board to sort out."

The groundhog hadn't been used in New Zealand for the past three years and its use previously in Dunedin showed "no anecdotal evidence to suggest they are 100 per cent successful", he argued.

While trainers, owners and jockeys were unhappy to lose a premier race day, the stewards had to follow the letter of the law.