Owners of horses in Saturday’s abandoned race at Ruakaka will receive an ex gratia payment NZTR announced today.

“NZTR is making these payments in good faith, acknowledging that owners have copped considerable expense to send their horses north, expecting them to race on Saturday,” NZTR CEO Bernard Saundry said.

“The stewards advise us that it was an electrical fault which caused the starting gates at Ruakaka to malfunction in the third race,” Saundry said. 

“After runners were inspected by the vet, five were declared unfit to run however, it was then established that the manual starting mechanism was not in working order and the race was subsequently abandoned.  NZTR supports that decision.”

The manual starting mechanism was eventually able to be repaired and, after it was tested extensively, the meeting was able to resume from the fourth race.  This race ran late because of the initial malfunction and subsequent testing.

“Occasionally, things happen which are out of our control,” chairman of stewards Matthew Williamson said. 

“Landing on the decision to abandon the race we firstly considered horse welfare, especially given the remaining five runners had already been through a race procedure and galloped various distances.  We also had to consider the integrity of the race and, of course, focus on ensuring the remainder of the meeting went ahead.”

Jockeys with rides in the Trig Construction Maiden are also entitled to be paid their riding fees, however this cost will be borne by NZTR rather than owners on this occasion.

NZTR will be making the payments to jockeys and owners in line with the current payment schedule which can be found here.