Flemington racecourse manager Mick Goodie has defended the preparation of the course proper which has come under fire from trainers and jockeys, most notably by trainer Danny O’Brien, for the way it performed on Saturday.
Goodie said he would not have done anything any different in preparing the track
which was was refurbished in 2007.
“I’m perfectly happy with how the tracked pulled up and we move forward to the next meeting and the rail will be out six metres,” Goodie told Radio Sport National on Monday.
“I’ll make a decision on what I do to the track in the belief that it’s the right thing for the horses and the jockeys.”
O’Brien faces an adjourned stewards’ inquiry into comments he made via social media criticising the preparation of the surface.
Steward Robert Cram, who presided over Saturday’s meeting, said the O’Brien inquiry would resume once stewards had looked into other tweets by trainers in the lead-up to the meeting.
Flemington-based O’Brien has been outspoken about the track for some time and went on with his criticism after training a winning double on Saturday.
O’Brien and others believe the track is not racing evenly, and with jockeys looking for fast lanes, there was more tightening and interference in races.
O’Brien said there was no kikuyu grass in the track’s profile and labelled it a disgrace.
“It’s rye and sand and it doesn’t race well. It races very inconsistently,” he said.
Goodie said he cored the whole track last week while the section between the 13m-18m where the watering machine drives was sliced as it needed de-compacting.
O’Brien told stewards he believed the reason that section was sliced was “because horses continue to get off the fence and win out there”.
Two horses broke down in separate races and had to be put down but Cram said the condition of the track was not at fault.
He said the O’Brien-trained Eraset came down the same section of the track as those horses to win the last race.
The surface was not to blame for leading apprentice Katelyn Mallyon’s fall later in the day causing her serious injury, Cram said.
Three jockeys were questioned regarding the fall with that inquiry also adjourned.
Goodie said he believed the track had proven it raced fairly.
“One of the main goals when we sat down to design this track was to take away leader bias,” Goodie said.
“Everyone used to say (at) 1400 (metres) you lead and you win. But if you go through the figures since this new track’s been in it has raced very, very fairly for tail markers.
“So I think we’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve.”
