Angry trainer calls for track closures
A leading central districts trainer has added his voice to the growing concerns of the state of New Zealand racing.
Taranaki conditioner Allan Sharrock spoke out in the wake of yet another abandonment, the Woodville Cup meeting yesterday the latest to be called off due to a slippery surface.
‘‘I had seven horses go there and now they’ve had to turn around and come home and all at the owners’ cost,’’ Sharrock said.
‘‘I’m livid – trying to run race meetings on unirrigated tracks with rain forecast is a joke. I’m over this.
‘‘These tracks have got to go. We need four super tracks in the country and then trainers make the decision whether to go to the designated areas to train. Without pain we won’t get change.’’ Sharrock said he would be prepared to move if, and when, a centralised policy was put in place.
‘‘It’s my choice then whether I go to Hamilton, stay in the central districts, or go to Melbourne or Sydney or whatever.
‘‘I’m bitterly disappointed. It’s just hopeless at the moment and things have to change.’’
Sharrock’s fellow trainer Tony Pike, of Cambridge, has also been outspoken recently about the growing number of abandoned meetings.
‘‘I think we are all aware that the weather can play havoc at times, but the circumstances around some of the abandonments are ridiculous and we just can’t carry on like this,’’ he said.
‘‘The livelihoods of so many people are being put in serious jeopardy and I just don’t know how much more we can take.’’ – NZ Racing Desk.