Racing: Track woes cancel Wellington meeting again

The cancellation of today's Wellington Steeplechase meeting for the second year in a row only highlights the need for redevelopment of the track, says the club's chief executive.

The meeting was cancelled yesterday because sections of the track had become so waterlogged they would not recover in time to provide a reasonable racing surface.

Last year the same meeting - which features the Wellington Steeplechase and the Wellington Hurdles - was cancelled for the same reason.

Wellington Racing Club (WRC) chief executive Eddie Jansen said the club could not continue with question marks hanging over the drainage at the Trentham track.

He said Trentham was too important a venue within New Zealand racing to lose meetings and redevelopment of the track was imperative.

Ironically, on Thursday night club president Mike Brown outlined to members the costs involved.

One of the cheaper options was "sand slitting", used in recent years at Te Rapa in Hamilton and Awapuni in Palmerston North.

Brown said sand slitting would cost about $600,000 but the club could not afford it and needed financial assistance from the industry.

He added a major reconstruction, like installing a Strathayr surface, as used at Moonee Valley in Melbourne and at Sha Tin in Hong Kong, would cost $6 million to $8 million.

A previous WRC president had suggested that racing at Trentham during winter should be avoided but Jansen said that was not an option.

When last year's meeting was cancelled, part of the back straight was the main concern. Drainage work had since been done there but this time the front straight was the major concern, Jansen said.

"This morning we looked at the back straight and thought we could rectify that. But when we got to the front straight we felt it was a little bit too much."

Jansen said that on Thursday there had been confidence the meeting would go ahead.

"We were fine and confident yesterday afternoon. But we've had, overnight, approximately 45ml of rain on top of a track that was already heavy.

Last year's meeting was cancelled on the day of the races and Jansen said it cost the club in the vicinity of $50,000.

The financial impact had been reduced by the early cancellation of today's meeting but Jansen said it remained a cost the club could hardly afford.

"The costs would be substantially less than they would be if we had waited until tomorrow morning. But it's still not a cheap exercise."

He said the club had looked at transferring the meeting to tomorrow but thought it was too late to make such a move.

* Judicial Control Authority (JCA) committee members Bernie Dodson and Ross Neal have been stood down pending a review of their findings at Trentham last Saturday.

JCA chairman John Grant confirmed on Thursday there would a full review of the decisions which have raised a lot of comment.

There were two inquiries last week in which the JCA committee of Dodson and Neal dismissed the protests and allowed placings to stand.

There was also concern raised about the lenient penalty imposed on leading jockey Lisa Cropp, who copped a one-day suspension and a $500 fine after being found guilty of careless riding.

Grant said there had been a number of concerns raised about the decisions last Saturday.

"The JCA has always had a process of reviewing decisions as part of our quality control," Grant said.

"We take these matters seriously and will be looking at them closely.

"We want to make sure we identify issues and address them appropriately."

Grant stressed that this was not an appeal process. There is no right of appeal into raceday decisions involving horses.

He said the inquiry would involve talking to the committee members and reviewing films and transcripts.

"The review will decide whether there are issues to be addressed."

- NZPA