KEY POINTS:
A deadline of next Wednesday has been set for a key player in the Darci Brahma-Wahid voting fiasco to respond to a list of questions, says New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Paul Bittar.
A special meeting of the NZTR board was held in Christchurch yesterday, during which discussion centred on the debacle in which a panel overturned voting figures to name Darci Brahma ahead of Wahid as last season's top 3-year-old.
News media and racing administrators were asked to select three horses, with points awarded on the basis of three for first, two for second and one for third.
Wahid received 165 points and Darci Brahma 136 before a three-man awards panel gave the award to Darci Brahma.
One of the panellists is NZTR board member Brian Kinley, who has been sent a list of questions over the matter.
Bittar said yesterday's meeting decided it did not want much more delay in receiving answers.
"I'll be requesting Brian that they are provided to the board by the close of business on Wednesday, if possible," Bittar said yesterday.
Bittar would not comment on the content of questions.
"I'm not prepared to discuss what the list of questions are."
Kinley, of Christchurch, did not attend yesterday's meeting.
"It was not really whether I would have liked [him] to or not. He wasn't able to attend so he didn't attend," Bittar said
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing commissioned an independent report into the affair.
The report said it was clear the awards panel had the power to overturn voting but at the same time said such power was not the intention of the NZTR board when it set up the panel two years ago.
"They did have the right to make the decision, but that was clearly not the intent of the board," Bittar said yesterday.
Following the release of the independent report, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing offered Wahid's connections a joint 3-year-old trophy, but they did not accept it.
- NZPA
