Ballarat Cup

[Smoken]

I respect your opinion, but I disagree. If he thought the rumour warranted enough to be checked on Thursday, why wouldn't he avoid any potential major drama by contacting the owners with these carts.. Why simply check them on Sat night? They didn't even check them on Friday night @ Melton. I thought Emma explained herself fantastically.

[arlington]

I feel for Ballarat as well, but there was no conspiracy here, which if you read some of the comments circulating on Saturday night along the lines of "the stewards knew" etc, clearly they didn't otherwise the situation would have been very different. 20/20 hindsight is great but the way things unfolded the stewards had no other options. I don't buy the argument that other carts could not be found, there were plenty of other legal ufo carts going around on Saturday night. I understand the set up issues, but the heat here should be on the manufacturer.

Same sentiments to the Ballarat Club.
A few things that were surprising from the radio interviews
- didn't disclose whether all horses scratched were to use the illegal sulkies
- West Aust notified similarly without discovering any illegal sulkies
- one of the affected trainer's from Saturday night had their sulky measured on Thursday and found to conform, but the sulky to be used on Saturday night, when measured on Saturday night, did not


What's equally surprising is when the steward was measuring the sulkies on Thursday not one person was curious enough to ask why.

[Mister JayKO]

I respect your opinion, but I disagree. If he thought the rumour warranted enough to be checked on Thursday, why wouldn't he avoid any potential major drama by contacting the owners with these carts.. Why simply check them on Sat night? They didn't even check them on Friday night @ Melton. I thought Emma explained herself fantastically.

And I respect yours as well, but given the circumstances, it's just a perfect storm. I am disappointed by the comments of some of the industry participants which want to turn a very unfortunate situation into an us and them scenario. I am not blaming the trainers for scratching their horses (though I remain unconvinced of the reasons). At the end of the day it is another shot in the foot for the game and there aren't too many feet left to keep shooting.

[Smoken]

Yes, it makes harness look second rate! It's already considered shady over all.

[Mister JayKO]

Same sentiments to the Ballarat Club.
A few things that were surprising from the radio interviews
- didn't disclose whether all horses scratched were to use the illegal sulkies
- West Aust notified similarly without discovering any illegal sulkies
- one of the affected trainer's from Saturday night had their sulky measured on Thursday and found to conform, but the sulky to be used on Saturday night, when measured on Saturday night, did not


What's equally surprising is when the steward was measuring the sulkies on Thursday not one person was curious enough to ask why.

Read the stewards report, approximate 10 horses scratched due to sulky issues.

None of the sulkys measured on Thursday were found to be illegal, they were not the same Trainers sulky that were found to be illegal on Saturday night. I don't think your comment is accurate.

[arlington]

Read the stewards report, approximate 10 horses scratched due to sulky issues.

None of the sulkys measured on Thursday were found to be illegal, they were not the same Trainers sulky that were found to be illegal on Saturday night. I don't think your comment is accurate.

G'day Stu,


Which particular part of my comment is inaccurate?

I was hoping the interviews would clarify if all horses scratched from the cup were in fact going to use the illegal sulkies. Comments appearing on social media suggested some horses were scratched for other reasons but still due to the illegal sulky issue.
I should have clarified, not all affected trainers scratched their horses in every event. Pretty sure the Chairman of Steward said on radio one of the trainers who did compete on Saturday night with a change of sulky had a sulky measured on Thursday which complied. Not suggesting it was the same sulky.

Now seeing the steward's report, all six horses scratched from the cup were going to use the sulkies in question.


This bit's not specifically relevant to the radio interviews or your post Stu,
What's equally surprising is when the steward was measuring the sulkies on Thursday not one person/participant/trainer/driver was curious enough to ask why. After all the onus is on the owner of the sulky to ensure it complies. You'd have to be curious as to why an official was running a tape measure over your bike...wouldn't you?

[p plater]

If these sulkies are oversized beyond Aust standards, then the manufacturer has supplied an illegal product imo. They must be held accountable, unless they are special orders and can prove it.

[Smoken]

If the manufacturer is at fault, then it will be found out, but that still doesn't explain the unprofessionalism on what happened on Sat night. This all could have been prevented, from that Thursday that they decided for some strange reason to look into this rumour. Did they forget that more trainers use these sulkys, and the big guns would be using them on Sat night?
Yep, I'm sounding like a parrot, but just because they are stewards, that doesn't mean they did not use common sense on Sat night, because & they didn't thoroughly investigate this rumour! If you investigate it, you might as well do it thoroughly, not just on some sulkys.
I wonder if this rumour was true, how many other rumours could be true, but HRV brush them off... Why did this tip off warrant for it to be looked at, even though very poorly.
Makes you seriously wonder! Harness will be last of the racing codes for many years to come at this rate!

[brent_L]

I'm not quite understanding why the trainers in this situation aren't copping more of a spray. Granted, the whole situation was very unpleasant, especially for the club, but aren't these trainers training as their livelihood? How on gods earth they could put themselves in a position like this by using equipment that is non-conforming is unfathomable to me. If team Adam Scott step onto the course with 15 clubs, they get penalised.....do they blame Tietlist, I don't think so.

p.s as much of a debacle as it was on Satdy night, the goings on in Sydney town certainly do put things in perspective.

[arlington]

p.s as much of a debacle as it was on Satdy night, the goings on in Sydney town certainly do put things in perspective.

Totally agree