Balls up: track invader narrowly avoids disaster
A GAME of backyard cricket bordering the Avondale Racecourse could have ended badly for one of the participants on Saturday.
It appears a wayward shot resulted in the ball soaring skywards and on to the Auckland racetrack near the 1000 metre mark as the field jumped from the barriers for the start of race two.
Not long after, a young man, who didn’t appear to be in a great rush, wandered on to the track to retrieve the ball as the field flashed towards him.
After realising that a race was in progress he ducked under the inside running rail when the thundering hooves were within approximately 75 metres of him.
The course manager was made aware of the incident and after being shown film footage spoke to people at the property and a member of the course staff was then posted in the back straight for the remainder of the day. Club president Alan Boyle said the club had not yet fully investigated the incident.
‘‘I view it as something the club has to look at but at the moment it is all talk and rumour but safety requirements obviously demand an investigation.
‘‘First of all I need to sit down with the track manager and club committee member responsible for track safety and it’s a bit premature to comment until that is done.’’
Despite a day of outstanding racing highlighted by the wins of The Soultaker, Caellum, Vavasour and Soriano in their respective black-type races, it wasn’t all beer and skittles for club officials.
A delegation of senior riders approached the stipendiary stewards following the incident-packed second race expressing their concerns that the old-style barriers were still being used at the venue.
Most horses in the northern region are now being educated using the newer overhead-style of starting gates which are also being used at the majority of racing venues.
Three horses were late scratched after an incident in the gates which prompted the jockeys to voice their concerns. The Avondale club had endeavoured to acquire the new gates for their meeting but logistics prevented them from being available.
Northern Raceday Services chairman Roger Blake believes his organisation is being unfairly maligned over the absence of overhead starting gates at the meeting.
The big card was conducted using Avondale’s old style caddy gates which raised the ire of stakeholders.
Blake stands by the decision not to transport Northern Raceday Service’s 14-stall set of Steriline overhead gates, housed at Cambridge to Avondale, quoting challenges presented by the southern motorway, particularly with prevalent side-winds.
‘‘If we had tried to take the gates up the motorway it would have placed a huge responsibility on our driver,’’ Blake told www.theinformant.co.nz. ‘‘When the customised trailer was road-tested by Modern Transport Engineers concerns were expressed with the tractor unit being used.
‘‘We have since sourced a more powerful unit from Japan, which is having a suitable turntable fitted as we speak and will be in use hopefully by early next month.
‘‘That will enable us to use the current tractor unit to tow the auxiliary set of three gates that have recently been delivered and which will be available to venues wanting to run more than 14-horse fields.’’
Boyle said Avondale ‘‘reluctantly accepted their [Northern Raceday Services’] position’’ .
‘‘We thought we should have had a fair go at using their gates but they were staunch on their stance of not bringing them up the motorway.’’
Avondale have ordered a 16-set of Simtrack overheads which will arrive in February.