Unsafe track ends Te Aroha meeting
Hopes are high that next month’s Group I race day at Te Aroha will go ahead despite Friday’s meeting being canned after two races because of an unsafe track.
The St Patrick’s Day meeting at Te Aroha was abandoned after just two of the scheduled seven races were completed on Friday – sparking fears the club’s premier meeting, that features the $200,000 Group I New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes, on April 8 may need to be relocated.
Racing Integrity Unit (RIU) general manager Mike Godber said it was obviously early days but initial reports he had received from stewards at the track were positive.
He said there seemed to be confidence coming from everyone involved at the track that the surface could be repaired in time for the April 8 meeting to go ahead.
Over the next two weeks, the RIU would be liaise with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing and the Te Aroha Jockey Club to ensure the surface was repaired in time.
At the completion of race one on Friday, a jockey approached stewards with concerns around the consistency of the track. One race later, that same jockey was joined by several others, who had concerns that the horses were punching holes in the track surface that had made it unsafe to continue racing.
Stewards, jockeys, trainers and members of the club undertook a track inspection amid safely concerns.
Mark Davidson, the stipendiary steward in charge of the meeting, told Trackside TV, horses had punched holes into the surface that were ‘‘evident to see’’.
Davidson believed the holes were a result of heavy rain not having had time to drain down deeper through the soil.
The track received 234mm of rain over the last seven days followed by warm weather.
An extra race may be added to the Avondale meeting on March 24 to accommodate horses who missed a run at Thursday’s abandoned meeting. Nominations are also still open for the Counties meeting on March 22.
The Te Aroha abandonment follows a horror week for racing in New Zealand. Last Saturday’s Auckland Cup meeting had to be postponed until Thursday because of the Tasman tempest weather system that dumped more than 200mm of rain onto the Ellerslie surface.
Sunday’s Manukau greyhound meeting was also abandoned due to the same weather system.
At the other end of the country on Sunday, the Wyndham gallops meeting was abandoned due to an unsafe track and Tuesday’s greyhound meeting at Addington was also called off due to a rain affected track.