Racing: Ruakaka track deemed unsafe

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New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing made a timely decision last week to officially subsidise horses left stranded by a race meeting being abandoned.

NZTR had not announced that decision when yesterday's Ruakaka meeting was abandoned after stipendiary stewards deemed the track unsafe because of excess sand on the racing surface.

The rushed decision to announce the move only a couple of hours after the cancellation placated a number of racing participants extremely upset by the meeting's demise.

"We decided last week that an automatic $200 payment would be made to horses which had travelled to an abandoned meeting," said NZTR's David Jewell.

Local trainer Dean Logan, president of the Whangarei Racing Club, announced that the club, in addition to the NZTR payment, would pay Auckland-based horses $100 and Waikato acceptors $200. Nomination and acceptance fees for yesterday's meeting have been waived.

The accumulation of sand inside the running rail was the result of major development work at Ruakaka.

High winds had blown large quantities of that dry sand onto the course proper on Tuesday night.

A delegation of trainers and jockeys accompanied stipendiary stewards in an inspection of the track after which stewards declared it unsafe.

"There was no chance to move the running rail out beyond the affected parts," said Logan.

"Even with a team from the Auckland Racing Club it takes four hours to move it and we had only our three guys from this club."

The $200 NZTR meeting compensation payment would also be paid retrospectively from the start of the 2013/14 season to connections of horses who had missed the opportunity to start at the Egmont meeting on August 29, when racing was abandoned after three races had been run, and those engaged in the last race at Hastings on September 21.

NZTR has left open all races at Avondale on Monday until 9am today and will look to divide races as required to provide additional opportunities for horses who missed an opportunity at Whangarei.

As provided in NZTR Standard Regulation 6.3, NZTR will look to exempt those horses engaged at Whangarei from the provision of the 2.5 late nomination entry provision for Avondale, which means any horse nominated for Avondale that was due to start at Whangarei will be treated the same as horses that had been nominated at mid-day for the Avondale meeting.

An $8000 Benchmark Rating 85 1400m Handicap will be added to the Taupo programme next Wednesday, and NZTR will also look to split races at Taupo as required.

David Jewell said NZTR would investigate the circumstances leading to the Ruakaka abandonment.