KEY POINTS:
If the Auckland Racing Club hadn't irrigated the Ellerslie track on Friday night, Saturday's race meeting would have gone ahead instead of being halted after Race 3 because of unsafe conditions.
But, and this is a huge BUT, that fact became clear only with hindsight.
Hindsight is the
crutch of experts and opinions, as they say, are like backsides - everyone's got one.
Everyone will have an opinion on this, but the facts are that had the ARC not irrigated and the showers that were predicted for Auckland City on Saturday had arrived, we would have had a skating rink surface and we'd still have gone home prematurely, probably earlier than Race 3.
That was the difficult situation facing the club and its course manager Jason Fullford on Friday.
That said, this wasn't a single-facet situation.
Had another couple of factors been made right earlier in the week, Friday's crisis would have been avoided.
Leading up to Friday's decision to water Ellerslie were a number of issues that all contributed to Saturday's disaster.
The first was the ARC's noble decision for the industry's sake to host the Counties Cup meeting the previous weekend when the Counties Racing Club decided it prudent not to race on its suspect Pukekohe track.
That meant Ellerslie had to host seven racedays in 38 days to January 1 and it required the running rail to go out a further 2m to 11m from the true position for Saturday's meeting, creating a sharper home turn bend and thereby being of no help to any slippery patches.
According to ARC general manager Chris Weaver, Ellerslie's watering system had not worked particularly well during the week because of persistently high winds.
He does not believe the club's irrigation system is flawed in that area.
But it's 38 years since we landed blokes on the Moon, surely someone can design an irrigation system that is not totally wind-sensitive. And please, no one mention cost.
How much do you think it costs participants and the racing industry to can a major raceday.
There is no question Saturday's problem was caused by the irrigation system not being able to repel the effects of the high temperatures and the wind through last week.
Because it wasn't able to get the right amount of moisture, the ground became very firm beneath the surface then when water was applied Friday night the surface softened and became lush. But only the top layer.
During the first three races on Saturday horses fractured through that softish surface and when their hooves struck the very hard sub-surface clods of grass were being torn off and the horses began slipping.
Gavin McKeon, one of the jockeys who refused to ride after Race 3, said it felt like galloping on carpet that had been laid on concrete.
Had the rain that was predicted for Friday arrived all would almost certainly have been saved.
"There is no substitute for rain for the evenness of watering a racetrack," said Chris Weaver. "I was at a meeting in the city late on Friday afternoon and it rained significantly.
"A couple of our board members who live in places like Karaka said it rained out there, but the rain went either side of Ellerslie. The track got none."
Jason Fullford contacted Weaver late Friday afternoon and said that in his opinion if rain had not fallen at Ellerslie by 9.00pm it would be necessary to put water on the track to ensure safety the following day if showers fell on a very firm surface during the races.
Weaver called chief stipendiary steward Cameron George in Wellington for confirmation on whether to water and was advised to go ahead.
NZ Thoroughbred Racing some time ago issued a directive to racing clubs to seek to present a 2.2 track for summer racing.
"The difficult thing here is that had we not watered Friday night the meeting would have been fine because there were no showers on Saturday," says Weaver.
"But they were forecast and you have to take some notice of that.
"It's not an easy situation to be in.
"And, it's not the first time we've watered the night before the races. I'd say we do it about five times a year and there's never been a problem."
There would not have been a problem had the track been able to be watered to the correct degree through the week.
That's the issue that needs addressing.
It's been suggested that you simply let nature take its course and if the track is slippery because of raceday rain on a very firm track, that is a better scenario because it's not man made.
But is that better? To establish it's slippery, and therefore dangerous, you have to race on a track. You can't look at a track and say it's unsafe.
You have to put horses around it in a competitive situation and is that not putting horses and jockeys into an unnecessarily dangerous zone?
Predictably, tempers flared in the birdcage during the 40 or so minutes between the slipping being notified to stipendiary stewards and the meeting being called off.
But that's understandable, trainers, jockeys and many owners get very keyed up under the white-hot pressure of a major raceday - so much is at stake.
Allan Sharrock's face was colourless in the weigh-in area thinking about how he was going to get Wahid ready for the 2000m $200,000 Zabeel Classic on Boxing Day after having to miss the recent big race at Riccarton because of a rain-affected track.
"Don't s..t down my back and tell me it's brown paint, that's not a 2.2 track," he said with more than a little feeling.
Bottom line: Chris Weaver said the club would be having talks with NZ Thoroughbred Racing to see what might be done better.