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Today's Racing :

Enquiry into Met false start

DAVE Mollett reports in Racing Express that the National Horseracing Authority (NHA) has launched an investigation into the false start to this year’s J&B Met at Kenilworth.
Mollet writes: “ The starter’s failure to check that the two banks of starting stalls were connected may have led to the false start which scuppered the chances of a number of runners in last month’s J&B Met.
“This is one of the possible explanations for the drama which left champion trainer Charles Laird fuming after well-fancied Dan De Lago lost 12 lengths when the field was eventually dispatched.
Laird said yesterday that “it looks like they want the incident swept under the carpet. To the best of my knowledge no-one has advised the public as to the cause of the false start. What chance do punters have when this sort of thing happens?”
Mollet quotes senior jockey Piere Strydom as saying: “Because of the big field, they needed two sets of stalls. Usually before a big race like the Met we ring for about 10 minutes, but we must have been running late as we only ringed for about a minute and it suddenly became a rush job,” said Piere.
Not connected
“After the roll-call, I shouted out that the banks of starting stalls weren’t connected and that they hadn’t tested the gates. They said there was nothing wrong and we must just load, but to my mind they were in a bit of a panic.”
Laird meanwhile went on to say: “… Dan De Lago never had a race and his backers never had a run for their money.”
There have been queries to Racingweb about “preferential treatment” allegedly given to certain trainers and “especially senior jockeys”, not only on Met Day, but as a general rule. This, it must be said is an observation made by a just handful of e-mailers and callers to our office.
The NHA’s Racing Control Manager Vee Moodley comments:
“Nobody is given preferential treatment whatsoever. All horses must be presented for certification of tractability before they are allowed to race.
“This procedure is done in the presence of Licensed Officials, they are the Stipendiary Stewards, Starters and Veterinary Surgeons.
Certificate
“Once a horse walks into the Practice Stalls and jumps on terms it is given a Starting Stall Certificate with a specific grading.
“Once they have been graded, horses’ characters are known to both the Stipendiary Board and the Starters and troublesome horses are downgraded and loaded accordingly.”
All of the above is done to ensure the safety of the jockeys and the welfare of the horse. As you are aware this is of paramount importance in the abovementioned exercise.”
Moodley said that the NHA was in the process of evaluating their loading procedures as compared to other racing jursidictions wordwide.
- Racingweb

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