Mike Dillon: Abandoned - wasn't there a storm alert?

Jake Bayliss celebrates on Volpe Veloce at Ellerslie. Photo / Dean Purcell

Something has to be done.

Four days into 2018 and we've seen four racedays either abandoned or severely affected by rain.

Thursday's Thames debacle was avoidable.

Two senior stipendiary stewards travelled to Thames to inspect the track on the eve of the meeting on Wednesday.

"We could not see a problem with the track," we were told on Trackside Television a few minutes after the abandonment call came following Race 2.

Hello. There was never going to be a problem with that track inspection. The problem was the horrendous storm lying in the Tasman Sea which even the orangutans at the zoo could tell you was hitting the Auckland/Coromandel districts for all of Thursday and yesterday. Almost the entire front page of this newspaper was devoted to the warning on Wednesday.

We all know what happens when rain hits a firm racecourse surface.

This is not dumping on the stipendiary stewards - they were clearly doing their best. It's more bemoaning the guidelines in which they are required to work, most of which were put in place soon after people stopped going to the races in stagecoaches.

Throw out current guidelines and move with the times. Early this week temperatures in Melbourne today were predicted to be around 41C. Hotter still in provincial Kilmore, so authorities transferred today's Kilmore races to Monday, which is predicted to see a dive in the mercury.

Melbourne's city meeting today was at Caulfield, but the 41C prediction was too risky, so the meeting was transferred to tomorrow at Mornington, where it is expected to be significantly cooler. The lesser grade Mornington meeting, which had been transferred from tomorrow at home to Caulfield today, has now been abandoned because even hotter temperatures are predicted. But the impact will be much less than if the major meeting was lost.

Why could Thames not have been transferred to tomorrow when the storm was predicted as early as Monday and Tuesday.

In times past traditionalists would say "But Greymouth are racing at Omoto today." That only mattered when thoroughbred racing worked under an almost socialist system and race-alone days were protected because Thoroughbred Racing's president at any given time protected each club vote for the AGM. Who cares about the industry.

The Thames meeting was hardly Derby Day at Flemington and how much damage could be done to Omoto. And even if it did some, the only consideration these days should be the owners. The same owners that still have to pay the unnecessary float fees to Thames on Thursday.

The Thames versus Omoto argument hardly stands up when you consider the transferred Kilmore meeting will run alongside the already scheduled raceday at Stony Creek. You can ride a pushbike between the two, provided Christmas tucker hasn't been too unkind.

Last time we looked it was much more difficult on a bike between Thames and Greymouth.

Thoroughbred Racing South Australia has taken similar steps to protect horses and participants with today's Gawler twilight meeting moved to tomorrow and the Naracoorte meeting originally set for tomorrow moved to Monday.

C'mon guys and gals. The owner has to be at the front of the queue.

• Praise be, a judicial charge that wasn't rubber stamped by the Judicial Control Authority.

The one regarding Volpe Veloce's $200,000 Sistema Railway winning rider Jake Bayliss being charged with careless riding over Melody Belle being checked inside the final 120m of the Group 1 sprint.

For those who are not totally aware, the judicial panel can lay interference charges against a jockey and the totally independent JCA panel decide whether the charges are proven and if so, the appropriate penalty.

At least that's how it's supposed to work, but an overwhelming success rate often sniffs of rubber stamping.

If the fat lady isn't singing the moment charges are laid, she is at least clearing her throat.

The JCA panel in this case, chaired by the vastly experienced and powerful thinking Noel McCutcheon - himself a former stipendiary steward and the best we've had - dismissed the charge, not out of hand, but after exhaustive perusal of video coverage which tended to prove the other participants, Start Wondering, Volks Lightning and Melody Belle herself had all contributed to the movement.

They did however relieve Bayliss of $500 for a celebratory whip gesture before the finish.

You can argue the benefit of that rule either way, but personally I'm not in favour.

Every stride of a horse race is as dangerous as the last few metres and the few after the line.

Regardless of where you sit on that, it's sad a young man, who dreamed of winning a Group 1 before he could walk he tells us, can't properly celebrate his first.

He didn't seem too overawed by the fine.

When stipes tut-tutted about the gesture Bayliss said: "Yeah, but it'll look good in the photo."