Racing: New twist in voting uproar

Trainer Allan Sharrock has called for the resignation of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Board member Brian Kinley in light of startling new evidence in the Darci Brahma-Wahid controversy.

The Herald discovered yesterday that Kinley - chairman of the panel that overturned the choice of Wahid as 3-Year-Old of the Year in favour of Darci Brahma - is manager of a horse syndicate in Te Akau Racing Stables, which prepares Darci Brahma.

The 76 industry people New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing asked to respond voted Wahid well ahead - believed to be in the vicinity of 29 points - but the three-person panel headed by Kinley gave the award to Darci Brahma.

Last week, Kinley refused to comment when the press first asked him if Wahid had polled more votes than Darci Brahma.

The Christchurch solicitor then said that a number of votes were discarded because the voting papers were incorrectly marked and indicated that several more were ruled invalid because the respondents were deemed to be too close to certain candidates.

Kinley, head of NZTR's integrity committee, is the registered manager of The Falcon Syndicate, owner of smart 3-year-old filly Cross My Heart, trained at Te Akau Stables at Matamata.

Cross My Heart has been to the races once for a close second to smart youngster Alberto in a juvenile race at Matamata on April 5.

Sharrock, trainer of Wahid, says Kinley has to resign for not standing down from the adjudicating panel because of a conflict of interests.

Kinley and the others involved in the awards would make no statements in light of NZTR chairman Guy Sargent announcing yesterday morning that an independent would be appointed today to review all aspects of the awards voting.

Sargent has told them to make no public comment.

Sharrock told the Herald: "He [Kinley] has to walk if he is even slightly serious about suggesting there is integrity around these awards."

Sharrock is not appeased by the recent press release from NZTR that the voting result was changed because the Australian and New Zealand combined end-of-season classifications had Darci Brahma weighted ahead of Wahid.

"Okay, if that's the stated case then how come Miss Potential was voted ahead of Calveen in those classifications last year and Calveen got the award. They're just contradicting themselves."

Under increasing pressure, Sargent had little choice but to appoint an independent to review procedures.

"We owe it to the connections of Wahid and we owe it to the racing public," said Sargent.

Sargent said he hoped the review would be completed in time for NZTR's next board meeting on October 16.

"If it's not, there's not much we can do about it. If not, we'll be analysing the report as soon as it's received," said Sargent.

"Our greatest wish is that these awards are seen to be squeaky clean."