“It was not malicious and offensive - it was just a comment to someone who I knew well.
“If I didn’t have that sort of relationship with her and her family I would have been more private and said it differently.
“I have known the junior driver and her family for a long time and have a good relationship with them. They are not offended by what was said.”
The driver told the Star Woodham made further comments about how she sat (in the sulky) behind a horse, which she thought was “really odd”.
At the time she didn’t think too much of it and didn’t see the comments as malicious. But after it was discussed with other people she began to think differently.
“One of the girls just said: ‘Did anyone else find that inappropriate’ and I was like ‘actually, probably yeah’.”
When Woodham made further comments, the driver said: “I was like: ‘Okay, probably crossing a wee bit of a line there’.
“It was just a couple of things about what I was wearing and again it wasn’t really bad, but it was sort of like, oh, I wish you didn’t say that sort of thing.”
The driver said she wouldn’t be raising the matter officially.
“I’m not burning bridges,” she said.
“You grow up in this industry ... we’ve all learned to be a bit thick-skinned in probably situations that we shouldn’t need to be but, yeah, just speak less of such things, not that we should or anyone should.
“I’ve talked to a couple of people about it and they said if he was an MP or something you could get him thrown out of office for saying things like that.”
Said Woodham: “HRNZ takes the welfare of all its participants very seriously and a staff member was with these junior drivers throughout the weekend to ensure their safety.
“She was with me when the comments were made,” Woodham said.
He also said the matter was a “non-story”.
Starnews.co.nz
