Alexander Fields followed by pulling Ginner Hart out.
Campbell was devastated yesterday. "That's disgraceful. I could handle it if it poured with rain and was out of anyone's control, but when it's human error ...
"We put three months of planning into this campaign and this has put our entire campaign into disarray.
"We've missed our shot at yesterday's big money and we had planned a perfect three weeks into the Orr Stakes in Melbourne."
Campbell says his much less desirable option is to race Cauthen at Trentham next week, if conditions suit, then two weeks into the Orr.
"That's one thing I wanted to avoid at all costs - a first-up race, a plane trip, travelling and only a two-week gap. We've been kicked in the arse."
The club's excuse was that early last week, rain had been forecast for Wellington, eliminating the need to irrigate.
But as early as Thursday, it became obvious there was a very small chance of rain and by Friday morning, fine weather became a certainty.
Irrigation needed to be applied, but it wasn't.
Matamata trainer Graham Richardson won the first Trentham race with Living The Dream, but only after voicing his disapproval of the Trentham surface on television.
"Not only was the ground hard, there was no real grass cover," said Campbell.
"As soon as I walked out on to the track after talking with jockeys that had ridden, I knew we were gone."
Stephen Marsh, who had Barbaric in the Telegraph, similarly gave the club a burst on television. "I thought about scratching, but three months of planning went into the race and as he's a gelding with no purpose other than as a racehorse, we decided to go ahead.
"I knew we were beaten before we started, but in racing you always have that faint element of hope."
Barbaric has had a history of foot and leg problems and Marsh said his jockey Matt Cameron told him the horse didn't know which leg to put down in trying to get away from the pain. Barbaric's effort was a long way short of his best.
The collateral damage will be enormous. Trainer Wayne Marshment produced O'Fille as the $1.70 favourite in the $70,000 Trentham Stakes and was livid when rider Leith Innes came in after being unplaced and told him the talented mare could not handle the hard surface.
"I saw plenty of horses crabbing around the carpark when we were loading up to come home," said Campbell.
Stephen Marsh said: "A lot of the horses that raced were looking at the Wellington Cup next week and the Thorndon and some of the babies were looking at the Karaka Million - there's no way any of those horses are going to be right for next week."
Campbell said the irony is that when he produced Tavistock for a Telegraph a few years ago, the horse failed because the club had over-watered Trentham.
"We're hoping it repays us in buckets for making this move."
Chief steward Ross Neal called an emergency meeting with club officials after the last race on Saturday.
"It's not our policy to dictate in these matters, but something had to be done," Neal told the Herald yesterday.
The press release from that meeting included: "The members of the Executive present concurred that the resultant Fast (1) outcome was far from desirable and that with there being a race meeting on Monday 20th January immediate measures were required to mitigate the current situation.
"To this end the club advised that they would be irrigating (15ml) tonight (Sat) with the outcome of this to be reviewed on Sunday morning to ascertain the progress of the remediation.
"The Wellington Racing Club chief executive [Alasdair Robertson] also advised that a structured review of the presentation of today's track would be undertaken in the immediate future, with the outcomes being advised to New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing."
Melbourne and Adelaide last week sweltered in 40C-plus, yet their meetings on Saturday opened with dead tracks, both venues being upgraded to good after Race 2.
Last week, Racing NSW stripped the Bathurst Race Club of its licence after a race meeting had to be abandoned because of surface water from incorrect irrigation.
"We have suspended the Bathurst licence until they can satisfy Racing NSW that they can conduct all aspects of a race meeting," Racing NSW boss Peter V'landys said.
"This is not the first incident that has brought racing into disrepute. They also had the farcical situation when the sprinklers were turned on when horses were in the straight."
