Racing: Trainer hot at 'paltry' St Leger stake money

Jim Gibbs wants an official explanation of why the stake money for the New Zealand St Leger at Trentham has dropped to a paltry $35,000.

The high-profile Matamata trainer is extremely disappointed that one of New Zealand's biggest racing clubs can allow such a stake for a Listed Stakes event.

"I won it in 1987 with Dungarven and the stake was $100,000."

The money was $50,000 when Arreviderci won the St Leger last year.

Wellington Racing Club chief executive Eddie Jansen said his club has found itself in a catch-22 situation.

"We agree the race is undervalued, but the Graded Stakes committee keeps telling us the class of horse is only average and won't give us group rating.

"Our argument is that when they review the race each year around June and July, the St Leger runners, as stayers, are still a way away from proving themselves. If you look back on some of the winners a few years later, this race has thrown up some smart horses.

"Last year the race was originally advertised at $35,000 and a few weeks out we decided to inject another $15,000 into it.

"We want to enhance the race - I believe it's a better race than it looks - which is why we put the extra in last year."

Gibbs trains the early favourite for this year's St Leger, Kerry O'Reilly.

"The $35,000 is only $7500 more than a PQ class race - that's ridiculous. The winner's cheque when Dungarven won was $62,500, nearly double what the all-up stake is for this year.

"What's going on at the Wellington Racing Club? The $100,000 for the Telegraph was also disgraceful. Fancy asking that class of horse to race for that money.

"They got a wonderful field for the race and they basically thumbed their noses at the owners."

Gibbs pointed to the comparison between stake money at Matamata today and proposed stakes at Trentham.

"Matamata is a small club. It's got a $100,000 fillies race, a colts' race for $35,000 and two open races for $20,000 each.

"Wellington is a hell of a lot bigger area to draw sponsorship from and there is no evidence of that in the stake money.

"Yearlings are a lot dearer to buy, you can't have stakes dropping."

Gibbs said he and fellow trainers want some evidence of accountability to emerge in racing generally.

"I was very upset that nothing was done when my horse Devoted was badly checked out of contention in the Railway at Ellerslie. I approached the Auckland Racing Club board about it and they said they had no jurisdiction over members of the Judicial Control Authority - there's never anyone you can get an answer from."

New Zealand Thoroughbred chairman Guy Sargent said his board was uncomfortable with the Wellington stance.

"What's happened is that unfortunately the St Leger has not attracted quality fields over the last decade and a half. As a consequence the race keeps appearing before the Graded Stakes board and has been downgraded from group two to group three to a Listed race.

"The club in turn has reduced the stake to fit the class of the race itself, but what it should have done is exactly the opposite. They should have got on the front foot and tried to attract a better field to get the rating of the race back up again.

"Our board wants clubs to raise the bar, not drop it. The one moderating factor is that clubs can only put on the stakes they can afford. As an ex-racing club administrator with the Manawatu Racing Club, I can sympathise with that."

The widely varying fortunes of horse racing struck the Wellington Racing Club this week. The cash-strapped club had a wonderful Wellington Cup meeting, only to be followed up with ridiculously low nominations for its meeting today.

The decision to proceed with the meeting was made on Wednesday after it looked in doubt on Tuesday.

New Zealand Racing Board chief executive Graeme Hansen said he could not comment on the specific issue of the St Leger, but his board was driven by the need for all parties in racing to be better off than they have been.

"We are working on the issues and there are instances of revitalisation - look at the galloping turnovers at the moment, they are well up.

"Look at the attendance on Wellington Cup day. The latest figure is 28,000.

"If you take that as a percentage of the population of Wellington then apply the same exercise to Melbourne, the turnout for the Melbourne Cup is no greater."