Racing: ARC fails to find place in sprint for Clean Sweep

Mike Moroney is staggered Clean Sweep has not been invited into the field for Saturday's $200,000 Railway at Ellerslie.

During the week-long controversy over whether the Auckland Racing Club should place Clean Sweep in the group one sprint ahead of a higher weighted horse, Moroney remained quietly confident of getting a start.

He was clearly gutted yesterday when the field was declared with the 2000 Guineas winner as fifth emergency and no hope of getting a start.

The Auckland Racing Club refused to use its discretionary power to place Clean Sweep in the field.

A five-person sub-committee of the ARC board met yesterday to discuss the matter.

Released with the fields was an official ARC statement:

"The board sub-committee this morning considered whether there were grounds to exercise the power of regulation 6.3 to select the field for the Waiwera Infinity Railway Handicap (Group I).

"Having received written confirmation that the weights issued for the Waiwera Infinity Railway Handicap are "consistent with NZTR Handicapping policy", and having noted that there was no ability for any party to alter the weight of any horse, the club decided to leave the field and ballot order as handicapped".

ARC racing manager Butch Castles confirmed that the written confirmation of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing handicapping policy had been received from NZTR CEO Allan Fenwick.

The club was forced to make a monumental decision - leave out a filly that would have generated a massive betting turnover, or include her at the expense of Concorde winner Gee I Jane.

Gee I Jane was devastating taking the Concorde and no one could argue she did not deserve a Railway start.

Mike Moroney said he was surprised on two counts.

"Firstly I found it weird that a filly that can win a group-rated weight-for-age sprint is not handicapped at weight-for-age.

"If she had been, she'd have 51.5kg and been in the field. The handicapping system is weird to me.

"But even after that I felt there was a very strong case for the club to invite her to run.

"That really surprises me."

Moroney believes Clean Sweep would have gone close to winning the Railway.

"I'm very happy with her. She's a very fast filly and although she won the 2000 Guineas at 1600, 1200m and 1400m are her best distances.

"I'm sure she would have been very difficult to beat."

There is an irony in that Clean Sweep missed a start because chief handicapper Dean Nowell wanted to look after her.

Nowell had no idea what the cut-off weight point for getting a start was going to be when he placed Clean Sweep on the 50kg minimum and says he would have had to be very unfair to the filly to give her more.

"The Railway is a very difficult race to win.

"Only two 3-year-olds have won it in modern times, Blue Blood, who carried 50kg and Gold Hope, who had 49kg and they were both outstanding horses.

"Admittedly those races had a 47kg minimum, against 50kg for this race.

"What the 50kg means is that there is not anywhere near the handicapping scale this time - had there been a 48kg minimum, Clean Sweep would have had 48.5kg and got a start.

"To give her more than the minimum the way the race was framed was too harsh on her."

Moroney said he will consult Clean Sweep's owners to decide the filly's immediate programme.

"The options are to stick around here for the Telegraph Handicap, or to head to Melbourne where the 3-year-old fillies races kick in around mid-January.

"Then there is Sydney - there are a lot of options for her in Australia."