Following a deluge of rain in Canterbury over the last 48-hours, with both Christchurch City and Selwyn District entering a state of emergency, Riccarton’s Saturday meeting has been transferred to its synthetic track.
“The (Canterbury Jockey) Club and the RIB (Racing Integrity Board) inspected the (turf) track post the abandonment of the races (Riccarton synthetic) yesterday and it was water-logged,” New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) chief operating officer Darin Balcombe said.
“We had trainers ringing up from the bottom of the South Island that were going to leave home first thing the next (Friday) morning, so we thought a prudent decision needed to be made that afternoon.
“To guarantee the meeting to go ahead, it (transfer to synthetic track) was the only decision given they had record rainfall in Christchurch and there was a state of emergency in various places. The track had surface water and was very water-logged.
“If we had gone ahead on the turf track on Saturday, in all likelihood you may have only got through one or two races, especially after the track was used last week as well. To guarantee the race meeting to go ahead, it was definitely the best decision.”
With the Listed Berkley Stud Champagne Stakes (1200m) scheduled for the meeting, the New Zealand Pattern Committee (NZPC) convened to decide whether it maintained its Listed status with the surface change.
NZPC chairman Matthew Goodson said the committee ultimately decided that the race would retain its status, citing several examples from multiple international jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, where the 2019 running of the Gr.1 Futurity Trophy Stakes (1600m) was transferred to Newcastle’s artificial surface following the abandonment of racing at Doncaster.
“The meeting has been transferred to the artificial (track) and we have decided that the race will retain its Listed status on this occasion, but that in no way sets a precedent for the future,” Goodson said.
“The issue was that there was extreme rainfall, so the transfer of the race to an alternative turf surface just wasn’t possible. Taking that into account, and also being mindful that there have been some global precedents of races being transferred from the turf to the artificial and keeping their status, we decided on this occasion that it would (maintain its Listed status).
“You see it all of the time in the US where meetings get transferred from the turf to the dirt, and there was the running of the 2019 Group One Futurity in the UK, which was moved to a synthetic surface at Newcastle because of the massive amount of rain, and it retained its status.”
Local trainer Anna Furlong was disappointed with the decision to transfer Saturday’s meeting to Riccarton’s polytrack and has elected to scratch her entire team, leaving just four runners in the Avon City Ford Easter Cup (1600m).
“The rain was always coming, the fields were strong, and people travelled to be here because the track was going to be wet, and we have got our wet trackers,” Furlong said.
“We all feel like the decision was so hastily made. I think we would all feel differently if it was going to be unsafe, but come tomorrow there’s going to be absolutely no danger, the horses are just going to be running very slowly. We run in the winter on a lot worse tracks than it will be.
“It’s disappointing. I am scratching my whole team, we are not going to risk our horses to run on the polytrack.”
Riverton trainer Kelvin Tyler shared Furlong’s frustration and he has followed suit, scratching all but one of his contenders on Saturday.
“Everyone nominated to run on the grass track, if we wanted to run on the artificial track we would have raced yesterday (Thursday),” Tyler said. “I am certainly not going to risk my young horses on the artificial track.
“I walked across it (Riccarton grass track) today (Friday) by the crossing, so I didn’t have a look at the whole track obviously, and it’s Heavy, but it will dry up and the surface water will be gone, and it will be a Heavy track.”
Master Marko remains his only representative at Riccarton on Saturday, and the six-year-old gelding is set to take his place in the Avon City Ford Easter Cup (1600m).
“Master Marko has won on the poly in Australia, but I wouldn’t risk the other ones,” Tyler said.
“He seems to be the same every day, he enjoys what he is doing, but he will probably go out for a spell after this. He has had a big enough year. There is good money up for grabs and it is going to be a smaller field.”
Tyler had three contenders set to run in the Champagne Stakes, while Freddie Time was going to have one final run ahead of his looming Queensland campaign, but Tyler said the meeting transfer has curtailed one plan and thrown a cat among the pigeons for the other.
“They (Champagne Stakes contenders) left to go home this (Friday) morning,” Tyler said. “I reckon it (transfer) has cost me $4,000. It’s costing people a lot of money.
“Freddie Time kind of needed this (run), so we have got another curve ball. We will just have to adapt and go to plan B or C. He flies out on Tuesday (for Australia), so I don’t have time to trial him. This race was going to work out quite nicely.”
Furlong said a number of her stable’s topliners will now head for a spell following an anticlimactic end to their season.
“There isn’t a race for Iffididit for a month, and Betty Spaghetti and Quintabelle are going to have to be turned out, and it just leaves the end of the season for them uncapped,” she said.
Tyler would have liked to have seen the meeting transferred to Timaru on Saturday or postponed to Riccarton’s grass track early next week.
“In my opinion, Timaru is a pretty good surface down here and they didn’t have much rain, or they could have run it on Monday (on Riccarton’s grass track),” he said.
“If you left it a day or two, you could have races on it.”
Furlong would also have liked to have seen the meeting postponed to next week, or the utilisation of both the synthetic and turf tracks on Saturday.
“They could have either run the good races on the turf and the lower races on the poly, or run on the turf on the Wednesday. There was no consultation,” she said. “There’s going to be about four horses running around in the Easter Cup, it’s a bit crazy.”
Balcombe said transferring the meeting to Riccarton’s synthetic track was the only viable option, adding that situations such as the one presented this week is the reason why the three synthetic tracks at Cambridge, Awapuni and Riccarton were installed.
“It (Riccarton grass track) is very water-logged, so you wouldn’t have been able to guarantee that it would have been alright to go on Sunday, you would have to go further out than that,” Balcombe said.
“Losing a race on Saturday is a major for the industry, given it is our highest turnover day, so you really do need racedays on the Saturdays.
“Trying to transfer a meeting like that to another club, when their track isn’t ready and in the current situation (state of emergency), wouldn’t have been a viable option.
“A lot of the reason behind these synthetic tracks was for them to be available to transfer these meetings when they are in doubt. We have done it in the past, we have transferred a Tauranga (grass) meeting to Cambridge (synthetic).
“It is not quite as easy in the Waikato when you are transferring to a completely different course, but when you have got the course right there (at Riccarton) it is very simple.”
One trainer who is backing the move to the polytrack is local horseman Michael Pitman, who is set to line-up all but one of his runners on Saturday.
“It was the only option they had,” said Pitman, who trains in partnership with his son Matthew. “I have spoken to a couple of jockeys that rode (on the polytrack on Thursday) and they said the track was really good.
“The surface will be at its very best tomorrow I reckon. I am not a huge fan of the polytrack outside of when it’s got rain on it, but I think it is a fantastic track with rain on it, which it’s had.
“We don’t trial many horses on it, we don’t race many horses on it either, except when it has got moisture.
“We have got horses that love the poly, and we have got horses that hate it, and there is only one way to find out – to line-up.
“We have got some nice horses throughout the day tomorrow. I probably won’t run Airpark Hustler, but that is not a reflection of the track, but rather where he drew (1).”
Pitman said his confidence in the synthetic surface was enhanced during his time campaigning Group One winner Enzo’s Lad in Britain.
“When I was in England with Enzo’s Lad, I spent a lot of time one day talking with John Gosden (trainer), and his good mare (Enable) that won two Prix De L’Arc De Triomphes (Gr.1, 2400m), he used to kick-off her campaign having one or two runs on the polytrack,” he said.
Meanwhile, Balcombe said RACE and NZTR have erred on the side of caution with Awapuni following its ANZAC Day abandonment after a slip in the opening race, and the recently refurbished track will undergo remedial work prior to its previously scheduled May 17 meeting, which will now take place
at Trentham, with Awapuni given time to bed in over the winter months in preparation for spring racing.
“We had maintenance scheduled post the 17th, so we have brought forward that maintenance, that involves coring and some sand going into the profile, just due to the close proximity of that May 17th meeting,” Balcombe said.
“To go through the return to racing protocols and to push the track to get back there (for the May 17 meeting), we wouldn’t have been able to do the work we wanted to do. “We want the track to be the best it can possibly be in the spring, so if we get the work done now it gives us more time leading into the spring to ensure it is 110 percent.”