Two horses slip: Te Rapa track faces abandonment of Sarten Memorial meeting due to safety concerns

Ess Vee Are winning Race 1 before the abandonment. Photo / Kenton Wright Race Images

There is a sad irony in the fact the Te Rapa track that has carried New Zealand racing through such a turbulent last two years finally had a major meeting of its own partially abandoned yesterday.

The Sarten Memorial meeting was abandoned after race 3 when jockeys suggested they could not ride competitively because of safety concerns.

Those were first raised after winner Ess Vee Are slipped on the home bend in the first race, something which was attributed at least partially to him losing a shoe immediately before.

But after two horses slipped in race 3, jockeys Joe Doyle and Warren Kennedy raised further concerns and after a jockeys’ meeting stewards had no option but to call the remainder of the meeting off.

That means the $150,000 Sarten Memorial could not be run but New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) moved quickly to ensure it is run in time to still allow the 3-year-olds involved to then also head to Riccarton for the two Guineas races there next month.

The Sarten will be held in the same field at Te Aroha on Wednesday, with NZTR still working on the exact time.

“We could put it on at the end of the programme already in place there but we don’t really want to do that,” said NZTR’s head of racing operations Tim Aldridge.

“These are top-class 3-year-olds so we want them to race on as good a surface as possible but also give their trainers the option to get them home early as we know many will be wanting to head to Christchurch the following week.”

Most of those starting in the Sarten are being aimed at either the 2000 Guineas at Riccarton on November 9 or in the case of filly Captured By Love potentially the 1000 Guineas a week later.

As messy as Monday’s abandonment is by holding the Sarten on Wednesday it is still realistic those who compete in it and want to continue on to Christchurch can, with the fact they can fly from Auckland to Christchurch a huge help.

What it does increase the possibility of though is superstar fillies Alabama Lass and Captured By Love clashing in the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton on November 16.

Co-trainer Ken Kelso confirmed to the Herald on Monday he is warming to the 1000 Guineas with Alambama Lass and she is now more likely to go than not while the Captured To Love team were already worried about the planned 12-day gap between the Sarten and the 2000 Guineas.

With that now closing to 10 days if Captured By Love heads to Riccarton it would seem more likely she would target the 1000 Guineas a week later for the extra rest.

While the 3-year-old campaigns may recover from Monday’s setback it is another dent in the confidence around New Zealand thoroughbred racing after a horror run with major meeting abandonments in the last two years.

It feels like almost no major metropolitan track has been spared but Te Rapa has been a saving grace, carrying the load for tracks like Ellerslie during its redevelopment, Trentham for an abandoned Captain Cook Group 1 and most recently holding the Livamol meeting moved from Hastings.

The Te Rapa track has been remarkably resilient during that time and track manager Bart Cowan is widely acknowledged as one of the best in the business so at least there aren’t concerns about the issue that caused Monday’s abandonment becoming a regular occurrence.

But for the thoroughbred industry, the connections of all the horses affected and those involved at club and TAB level it was another black eye nobody needed.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s racing editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.