KEY POINTS:
Fritzy Boy will run in Saturday's Southland Guineas despite being deprived of the chance to win a $100,000 bonus, Wairarapa trainer Alby MacGregor said last night.
Fritzy Boy was in line for the cash bonanza after winning the Gore and Dunedin Guineas at his previous two starts. But it is no longer available because yesterday there were only nine acceptors for the Southland Guineas at Ascot Park.
The bonus was available to a horse that could win all three races but a condition was there had to be at least 10 runners in each race. There had been 12 runners in each of the first two legs.
MacGregor, who has been based in the South Island for the last five weeks, said he had come too far to now turn around. He was disappointed the special condition had not been recorded in New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing's official organ, Thoroughbred Racing Monthly, commonly referred to as the racing calendar.
"All it's got in the racing calendar is there is special conditions," MacGregor said. "But it doesn't say what the special conditions are.
"It is supposed to be the bible and it's not there. How's anyone supposed to know?"
Gallops South chief executive Andre Klein said the special condition was clearly stated in a South Island programme guide but that argument held no credence for MacGregor.
"That doesn't hold much strength as far as I am concerned," he said.
"We've come a long way and stayed away from home for a long time to do this To get this sort of thing at the end, it's disheartening."
MacGregor said he only learned of the special condition after reading it in the Gore Guineas race book and had clung to the hope there would be enough runners.
Klein said if the bonus was run again, any special conditions would be spelt out in Thoroughbred Racing Monthly.
"In retrospect, it probably should have gone into the racing calendar," Klein said.
But he added MacGregor should have enquired about any special conditions. "It has been the same conditions for the last three years," he said.
- NZPA
