Racing: Castles backs staff's track preparations

Andrew Castles, General Manager hawke's Bay Racing

Hawke's Bay Racing general manager Andrew Castles bit the bullet over the Group 1 Hastings meeting fiasco but who is responsible for what irate trainers and owners have described as a "disgrace"?

Should track manager Richard Fenwick and his staff be held accountable for alleged "over sprinkling" that contributed to a slippery stretch of track about 800m out around a tight corner, leading to the abandonment of the $400,000 Windsor Park Plate meeting shortly before 2pm on Saturday?

"Look, the track manager does an unenviable task with the way the weather changes so I'm very comfortable with how much water was applied but, look, hindsight is a wonderful thing ... ," Castle said in his staff's defence last night, after taking a 24-hour timeout to find alternative plans to appease disgruntled industry parties.

Castles said 16mm of irrigation had been applied to the track last week and the club was transparent about that because of the balmy weather.

"To provide a dead 4 surface was the aim but for whatever reasons a horse [in race 3] showed signs of slipping [although] the first one I'm not sure I would call it a slip."

He felt the 30-40mm rain forecast yesterday prompted some concerns for the feasibility of a postponed meeting.

"A lot of horses need to go home because they don't come here with food for two to three days ... so looking at programming on Monday or Tuesday wasn't probably viable, as well," he said.

He revealed he had been in contact with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing to try to find the best path for the remaining races but to no avail.

Instead, the Group 3 Gold Trials Stakes will be held during the final leg of the spring carnival, the Livamol Classic, here on October 3.

The Group 1 Windsor Plate will be co-opted with the Trentham programme in Wellington on October 24.

That means $270,000 of stake money will be paid out but the overall loss of revenue is bigger.