Racing: False rail answer to incident

Photo / Thinkstock

One last word on the sad Atomic Force/Nash Rawiller, Durham Town/Vinnie Colgan saga.

It could have been totally avoided by the Wellington Racing Club doing what it should have done years ago - put a false rail up across the crossing from the 1200m chute to the course proper running rail for its sprint races.

Flemington do and theirs is a genuine "straight six" compared to Trentham's dogleg, which will always create greater problems.

The surprise is that without that rail there haven't been more issues like this terrible one we saw in the group one Telegraph.

This was raised some time back with Wellington and those who had the power to make change declared it a manpower problem.

If so, how come course manager Lin Biddle is in the birdcage after just about every race putting on the winner's dress rug. Why is a WRC committee member not doing that?

Flemington's Mick Goodie is the best course manager in the business.

You don't see him putting rugs on horses after a race.

He's out on the track doing his part to maintain Australian racing as the world's best and Flemington as Australia's most respected racecourse.

We won't be seeing Te Karo and The Meista again.

The pair ran their last races at Te Rapa on Saturday, Te Karo getting the money at good odds, but wrecking a tendon in the process.

The Meista, winner of eight and $285,775 for Dawn and Peter Williams, recently had a respiratory operation, which has not been totally successful.