Top jockeys question official track ratings at Eagle Farm

LEADING jockeys Ryan Wiggins and Jim Byrne have questioned why officials continue to get the Eagle Farm track rating wrong, despite being told it races much worse than it walks.

Jim Byrne says ‘it feels like we are racing on sand dunes’ at Eagle Farm. Picture: Tim Marsden

LEADING jockeys Ryan Wiggins and Jim Byrne have questioned why officials continue to get the Eagle Farm track rating wrong, despite being told it races much worse than it walks.

Wiggins and Byrne both galloped horses at Eagle Farm last Saturday and told officials it was a soft (7). The official track rating was sent out as a soft (5), but raced much worse.

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“It doesn’t matter what we say to them, both of us told them it was a seven and they put it up as a five,” Byrne said. “They are fooling themselves and people are jumping out of trees criticising them for it. Yes, putting up a seven will bring its own criticism, but tell the truth.”

Wiggins said the track “walks two grades better than it really is’’.

“I can understand where the ratings have been coming from, but we have been galloping horses on it and telling them it’s a seven, but they keep putting it out as a five,” he said. “If they put up a true rating, the backlash they are getting at the moment wouldn’t be as bad, but because they keep doing this, everyone is getting dirty.”

Wiggins dismissed suggestions there was something fundamentally wrong with the track and it needed to be ripped up.

“The track is not stuffed, it’s just the way they are rating it,’’ he said. “It’s a winter track and you won’t see its best until summer. At the moment, when they water it, it just stays wet.’’

Byrne agreed the track would come good in time but said officials needed to face reality about its current situation.

“It’s a job I don’t envy, but the track will come good. The more we use it the better it will be. The sand needs to pack down. At the moment, it feels like we are racing on sand dunes.’’

Originally published as Top jockeys question official track ratings at Eagle Farm