Starter, stewards blamed for Friday’s faux pas

THE Arima Race Club chalked up another first in the sport of  horseracing with the staging of their Emancipation Day card on Friday by running off a 1000 metres event over 1100 metres. And this comedy of errors occured in the opening event on the day’s 11-race programme.

The error was realised late, and ARC president Gerard Ferreira tried to rectify the situation on being notified just before the start, but efforts to  contact starter Bertram Lalsingh  proved futile. The seven-runner race was later declared void under Rule 52 of the Rules of  Racing, after trainer Maniram “Boboy” Maharaj quartet of Sunday Jewel, Java Takeover, Java In Style and All Set To Battle made a clean sweep of the $22,000 prize money at stake, along with the $1,000 incentive from the Racehorse Owners Association. Ferreira has promised to hold an inquiry into the affair to determine who is to be held responsible, and to put measures in place to prevent a recurrence. But to date, blame for the faux pas was being divided, with  the senior players in the industry heaping it on Lalsingh and his assistant Lennox Conliffe, while others pinpointed the presiding stewards of the day, chairman David Logrenard, Tyrone Kowlessar, Richard Halfhide and Roy Podmore for the negligence. Trainer John O’Brien who is also vice-president of the ARC was of  the view that the Stewards were guilty on this occasion, stating that they are responsible for the day’s  racing.

Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority chairman Joe Hadeed saw it differently, and squarely blamed the starters, who are each afforded a programme with the races and distances before the start of a day’s peogramme. Hadeed was strongly of  the view that the positioning of the stalls was among their first responsibilities, but promised to place back these responsibilities other clearances into the lap of the stewards. The TTRA boss said he will ask that the green and red flag which was a thing of the past be re-introduced. The waving of the green by the stewards will denote clearance and the red non-clearance. Trainer Maharaj who was denied the distinction of leading in the top four finishers and also the purses, blamed the starter for Friday’s fiasco. “It is the duty of the starter to make sure all races start at their designated points at post time or soon after, he said. “If that was done then the problem would have been detected. “The President had the dignity to apologise for the shortcomings of  his staff and under discussion I agreed with  him to a re-run of the race on Saturday. “But the Rules of Racing did not permit. “While it allowed for a re-run on the same day with older horses it is not permitted with juveniles. “Because of that stumbling block we settled on running the race again with the same runners.”