No replacement dates sought

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 33

No replacement dates sought

By DAVID MCCARTHY The Marlborough Racing Club will not be seeking any replacement dates for the two-day spring meeting which was abandoned by the club on Saturday night The meeting was to be held today and Thursday, but severe flooding in the Marlborough district, and the number of horses likely to be withdrawn from the first day of the meeting, caused the club to abandon after a lengthy meeting of the executive late on Saturday evening. It is believed to be the first time any club racing at Waterlea has been forced to abandon, but it was not track conditions which forced the abandonment

“The track is heavy, but in good condition from a racing point of view. But a lot of horses racing at the meeting were booked to travel south today and when it was known the problems we were facing, a significant number of them were unlikely to come,” said the club secretary, Mike O’Brien, yesterday. Originally, 106 horses accepted for the meeting, which was restricted to eight races on the first day.

“We already had 20 scratchings by Saturday afternoon and I was expecting at least 25 more from stables which had indicated they were doubtful runners on a rain-affected track.” When I rang around all the trainers to advise them of the club decision, I found the situation even worse than we thought It is conceivable we could have had less than 50 runners at the meeting, with several two-dividend races,” O’Brien said.

Teams prepared by Graeme Rogerson, Gus Clutterbuck and Paddy Busuttin dominated the meeting. Most of the Rogerson and Busuttin teams were expected to defect and the Clutterbuck string had been officially withdrawn on Saturday.

The abandonment came at a minimal cost to trainers in terms of inconvenience. Only three visitors were already on the course, the worst affected being the Foxton trainer, Grant Laursen, who had a team of six based at Blenheim for some days. They included Landsberry Lane, Miss Chardonnay and Blazing Path, leading candidates for the Thompson and Devanney Trial, the feature event of the day.