Ellerslie bosses to work out teething problems before next race

Desert Lightning winning the $1 million Elsdon Aotearoa Classic at Ellerslie on Saturday.

Ellerslie bosses will work with stewards and jockeys to ensure their new racing surface is over rain-affected teething problems before the next race.

The huge TAB Karaka Millions meeting on Saturday night set a record for turnover for a New Zealand race meeting, with $9.5m bet on the six races.

But stewards called a jockey’s meeting after Race 5 after at least two jockeys voiced concerns over the new StrathAyr surface having some movement that may have caused their horses to slip.

After viewing footage and offering opinions, the jockeys agreed to continue with the last race.

That was completed with no significant racing incidents and it was hard to prove any issues with the surface had affected who won the races, with the last race winner Orchestral coming from eighth and having to change ground in the straight, beating the leader and the third placegetter coming from last, against the pattern of the day.

After numerous trackwork, trials and the debut race meeting for the track on January 13 drew rave reviews from jockeys, Saturday’s issues appear to have been caused by two things: the new surface still bedding in but more so the untimely rain.

While Auckland had rain on Saturday morning that cleared away and the track dried, then there was light misty rain during the meeting, any track manager’s worst-case scenario on a firm surface.

So while the meeting was completed Ellerslie boss Paul Wilcox admits they want the surface to perform better next time, which is scheduled to be the Avondale Cup meeting on February 17.

“First thing first, we absolutely admit it was not ideal but we were unlucky with the rain, which can make any firm surface more slippery than you would like,” said Wilcox.

“But we are dealing with a new track that everybody loved at the first meeting and the new surface is still settling down, which it will continue to do for another year.

“That means the top had what was described to me as ‘surface tension’ and that caused the issue.

“The bottom line is it wasn’t good enough but the jockeys were comfortable still racing and obviously we didn’t try to convince them either way, that was between them and the stewards.”

Wilcox says he and his team will work with stewards and, if needed, jockeys to test the track if that is deemed necessary before the next meeting and “we want to have things more settled for the Cup meeting”.

While jockey and horse safety are always paramount in racing it is hard to see how any other decision could be reached when the jockeys, including the world-class riders at the meeting, voted to still hold the last race.

Stewards may run the meeting but any time a race meeting is called off because the racing surface is deemed unsafe it is because at least some of the jockeys involved have asked or voted for it to be abandoned.

Every jockey the Herald spoke to as they came out of the jockeys’ room before Race 6 said they were happy for the meeting to go ahead.

It is very easy to make the case that they would say that because of the $1.5 million stake but there have been plenty of group 1 race meetings in New Zealand, three in the past three years, abandoned because the jockeys didn’t believe the track was safe so they have walked away from big paydays before.

If stewards have to listen to jockeys when they say they don’t want to ride, they probably have to listen to them when they say they do.