Abandoned Meetings

[hillbillydeluxe]

I was very annoyed that Newcastle abandoned there meeting on 16/12 when after reading what stewards allowed at Bathurst which helps industry participants greatly.
Not only having a horse in the first race which therefore having to pay travel costs without even having a start. Surely they could have let storms pass as well. We were hit with 40mm in less than an hour but after that it was fine so now the trainer has missed nominating for the friday meet and now my horse has to wait 10 days until its next race.
This as an owner puts me off the sport as its hard enough meeting the costs.
Please stewards or those that make the decisions think about all this as without owners you don't have an Industry.

[aussiebreno]

What happens if you're racing in race 7 and because stewards say wait and see so you travel to the trots only for it to keep raining and they get called off? You would be spewing you wasted travel. Can't keep everyone happy.

[Sofoulis]

I could not agree more Michael. Not only is it disappointing to not be racing, but there is absolutely no communication to the participating owners which is a common them in NSW in my opinion.

The club needs to be held accountable for issues like this. 40mm of rain should not give rise to the track being unsuitable for racing for the remainder of the day, but if it does, then they should look to improve the track (read: return the track back to where they had it previously because it sure could handle this in the past). Further they need to demonstrate an active attempt at either deferring (i.e. hours) or rescheduling (i.e. following day) the meeting.

The club has costs it will have incurred on that day, which it will not recover without running additional meets, equally, our horses have now not raced this week nor are they nominated in other races to make-up for it. It is a lose-lose situation and the only party who can change this situation is the club itself.

[Sofoulis]

Communication would keep most happy. Compromises would also be useful ("oh, you have a horse in the 7th race but you have other matters you need to attend to - that's no one's fault, you can scratch without penalty")

[Messenger]

40mm is nevertheless a lot of rain - we have seen meetings abandoned mid meet in Vic this year after much less than 20mm