Southeast Queensland’s wet weather and now a barrier blunder is causing headaches for trainers

As if southeast Queensland’s horrendous run of wet weather hasn’t been enough for frustrated trainers, now they’ve had to deal with a farcical barrier blunder on the Sunshine Coast

Trainer Belinda Mair says the poly track at the Sunshine Coast needs to be used more. Picture: Patrick Woods

As if southeast Queensland’s horrendous run of wet weather hasn’t been enough for frustrated trainers, now they’ve had to deal with a farcical barrier blunder on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday that forced a bevy of horses to be late scratchings.

After the running of the first race, while the barriers were being moved to the 1000m chute, a mechanical failure with the steering mechanism caused the barriers to break through the outside fence near the 1300m mark.

The damaged barriers couldn’t be used but the replacement set only had 14 gates, meaning that seven horses in the bigger fields across the rest of the card were declared late scratchings as per the handicapped ballot order.

The affected connections were given $300 in compensation.

Belinda Mair, whose gelding Missile Away was one of the late scratchings, said southeast Queensland’s big wet and now Saturday’s “big shemozzle” had caused nightmares for owners and trainers as meetings are abandoned and races become increasingly backlogged.

“I have no idea what actually happened,” she said. “You’ve just got to suck it up.

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“We can still go into accepted races but with racing the way that it is at the moment, losing so many races, that’s what has made it really tough. No one can get a run.

“Some of the decisions lately have not been ideal for anyone.

“We’ve got the best poly track in Australia and they don’t use it enough.

“Race meetings are being abandoned everywhere and that puts fields up.”

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Deagon trainer Christos Zintilis’ four-year-old mare Maurita was another horse forced to be scratched from the Sunshine Coast meeting.

He received the phone call from stewards just as he pulled into the car park at the track.

“The owners weren’t very happy,” he said.

“It was annoying because we were going to run two days before that at Ballina but the meeting got postponed due to a waterlogged track.

“We got a late nomination into the field at the Sunny Coast but they put you down the bottom of the ballot therefore we were an emergency but with her ratings, she should’ve been number 10 and not number 21.”

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Ipswich trainer Phil Bobic was in Toowoomba when he heard that his gelding Horsburgh was a late scratching from the sixth race on the card.

“It was definitely not ideal. It was expensive because I’d sent two staff up there to look after my two horses that were running on the day,” Bobic said.

“I was kind of in shock because I was in Toowoomba at the time and I’d had jockey problems all day, it was the third jockey change.

“To be honest when the stewards rang and said my horse had been scratched, I thought ‘oh man’.

“It was a turbulent time.

“They said ‘everyone’s kicking off’ but from what the stewards told me, they didn’t really have an option.”

Originally published as Southeast Queensland’s wet weather and now a barrier blunder is causing headaches for trainers