Racing: Industry takes financial hit

A mud-splattered Le Bon Fin easily won the Garrard's Horse And Hound Hurdle at Te Rapa. Photo / Thinkstock

When the jumps jockeys say riding is dangerous, it's time to go home.

After the three hurdling races at Te Rapa on Saturday, the jumps boys and girls said continuing was impossible.

Race 3 was run in a rain storm. Michael Mitchell, who finished second on the favourite, Boy, said continuing with the flat races to follow would have been suicide.

Mitchell came from close to last at the 1000m to finish second to Coolibah and said the second half of the race, as he went around runners on Boy, was a blur. Visibility was so minimal, identifying when the hurdles were coming up was an issue.

"We could see about 10m, that's all. I pulled my goggles off on the home turn because I couldn't see a thing, but when you do that the sand from the kick back gets in your eyes and you have to close them a fair bit so you're actually riding blind.

"We had a fair bit of distance between each horse, which helped, but in a 3-year-old 1200m flat race they would have ridden much tighter and they would have had zero visibility."

The abandonment of Te Rapa and the big Opunake meeting at New Plymouth will prove extremely costly to the racing industry.

A significant amount of the lost TAB revenue betting on the domestic meetings was re-directed to Australian racing, but the big losers will be the Waikato Racing Club and the Taranaki club.

On Saturday, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing investigated every avenue in an attempt to re-schedule both meetings, but by late afternoon deemed that impossible. The loss this year of the $65,000 Waikato Stud Opunake Cup, which was to have been contested at New Plymouth, is significant.

The meeting was abandoned at noon after torrential rain left surface water on the track.

Matamata trainer Toby Autridge was beaten with Boy at Te Rapa, but earlier he won with Le Bon Fin, who ran second in his jumping debut at Hastings. "I get a bit worried about him because last year at Te Aroha he slipped and nearly fell on the flat on a heavy track and he lost his confidence," said Autridge.

"He didn't have any problems though, I thought it was a nice ride by Reece Cole because he listened to the instructions."

Autridge has thoughts of a good race for Le Bon Fin at the Grand National meeting. "If he comes through this race he could go south.

"I won't take Boy though; there's not much of him and he doesn't do well away from home."

Quiet day for punters
•With New Plymouth scratched before the first and Te Rapa abandoned after the third race, it was time to study the Aussie form.
•The loss of potential stakemoney will be costly to the industry and both clubs will miss the turnover.
•One of the three Te Rapa winners, Le Bon Fin, may be headed to Riccarton for the Grand National meeting.