Racing rolls on but with restrictions for owners, trainers and jockeys

Group one winner Tiptronic (outer) will resume at the Taupo meeting on Wednesday after the meeting was added to the northern racing calendar when Ruakaka was cancelled. PICTURE/ RACE IMAGES

Horses without their trainers and jockeys living away from home will enable New Zealand racing to continue this week.

Even though the restrictions at level 3 have created some headaches for officials and trainers, there is no reason to think the racing industry will slam to a costly halt, unless the Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland worsens or spreads.

Both thoroughbred and harness racing have reacted quickly to the restrictions in place after a new outbreak of community transmission of Covid-19 was discovered in Auckland last week.

Thoroughbred racing delayed and then cancelled the Ruakaka meeting programmed for the weekend and have put on a new, semi-replacement meeting at Taupo on Wednesday.

Harness racing redrew the fields for Saturday's harness meeting at Cambridge to exclude horses from the Auckland region, while this Thursday's Spring Cup meeting at Alexandra Park will go ahead at present, with the main question being whether horses from south of the Bombay border will be allowed to come to Auckland to race.

There are enough harness horses in the Auckland region to conduct a full meeting.

All race meetings at either level 2 or level 3 will go ahead without the public, but at level 2, owners are likely to be allowed, with NZTR working with clubs to establish protocols for that and see whether they have the facilities to allow owners, but keep them separate them from the participants.

But you can't have race meetings without horses and jockeys or drivers and the restrictions on travel in and out of the Auckland region has led to some unusual situations.

Ruakaka trainers Chris Gibbs and Michelle Bradley were denied a rare home track meeting yesterday but will send some of those horses to Taupo to race on Wednesday.

The horses are allowed to travel through the Auckland region and back to Ruakaka but only if they are transported by an independent horse freight company, who will have strict Covid-19 protocols to abide by, which includes all gear used on the horses being disinfected.

But while the horses can travel, people can't, meaning any trainers sending horses from north of Bombay to the Taupo meeting, or any other meeting or trials in the Waikato, can't travel with them.

The horses will need to be met by either a fellow trainer or stablehand at the races and cared for by them until they return home with the same horse freight company. The trainers of the horses will have to notify NZTR who is responsible for the horses at the meeting.

While trainers ideally don't like sending their horses to the races without them or their usual staff being able to attend, it is far from unheard of.

Trainers with only one or two horses going to a distant meeting or sending a horse, for example, to the South Island or on a rural circuit, will often entrust those horses to a rival trainer or other registered person.

The ban on humans leaving the Auckland region won't greatly impact the jockeys' ranks as few of the busier jockeys live in the region and some of those who do were already in Waikato when lockdown started last Wednesday.

"I was down in Taupo for last week's meeting when it all happened, so I have stayed down here," says top rider Leith Innes. "And I will be here until lockdown stops because this is where the racing is."

In-form Matt Cameron was also in Waikato and stayed there, while Andrew Calder and Sam Spratt are also able to ride, with Spratt living just south of the lockdown border.

The lockdown should not have a disastrous effect on the finances of the TAB, and therefore the industry, as racing and most sport can continue and TAB account holders can still bet, although the closure of Auckland region TAB agencies will affect retail turnover.