Local police have been called in to investigate the circumstances that led to a race meeting at Kilmore being abandoned because of safety concerns over steel spikes on the track.
Thursday’s meeting was called off before the first race after two steel pegs were found to have been driven into the track following a Racing Victoria stewards course inspection.
Kilmore Racing Club chief executive Ben Murphy said his club was angry the meeting was called off.
“We’re not angry with the decision that’s been made,” Murphy told broadcaster racing.com.
“What we’re angry with, and really perturbed by, is that someone has taken the time to do what they’ve done to the track to what we can only assume is to create chaos.
“Certainly from our perspective it’s a police matter.
“We’ll make contact with our local police this afternoon and work with the stewards with an investigation.
“We take this extremely seriously and we’ll leave no stone unturned to try and find out who has taken it upon themselves to do this today.”
Walking the track before the meeting stewards found two star steeled posts, approximately 40cm long, had been driven into the track, two metres off the rail, near the 400m.
Robert Cram, who was in charge of Thursday’s meeting, said stewards could not be completely satisfied there were no other steel posts hidden as the track had a healthy covering of grass.
“It’s an immeasurable safety risk which the stewards weren’t prepared to take,” Cram said.
“We found two stakes and we walked the track twice.
“The riders had extreme doubt due to the long grass here today that there wasn’t any more there lying just underneath the canopy of the grass.”
Cram said a frank discussion took place with the jockeys who made a unanimous decision not to proceed with the meeting.
