Racing NSW Stewards slammed as wild vision of Randwick goes viral

Horse racing fans have lashed out at stewards over a shock decision that came in the wake of never before seen footage going viral.

Racing NSW Stewards have come under heavy fire after announcing racing at Randwick would go ahead on Saturday.

Heavy rainfall battered Sydney with Randwick copping an astonishing 230mm of rain in a 48 hour period.

Fox Footy is the only place to watch every game of Gather Round, stream on Kayo Sports also available on Hubbl

Despite the heavy downpour, Stewards confirmed the meet would continue at the famous track in a decision that shocked social media users.

“(The) meeting will proceed on a Heavy 10. Section near the 1000m is consistent with the rest of the track and is suitable to race,” the Stewards said in a statement on X.

The decision comes after footage of the track under water was uploaded to social by trainer Peter Moody.

The wild vision, taken just after 5am on Saturday, showed him standing under shelter as the rain came pouring down.

Fellow trainer Michael Freedman posted a clip of himself and Moody walking around the track in shin-high water while laughing about the conditions.

“Never seen it this bad,” Freedman says.

The decision by Stewards to go ahead with the race day was met with sheer amazement by social media users with many stating the conditions wouldn’t be safe for the horses.

“Wonderful safe environment for horses and jockeys. That’s nuts,” the Meredith Park social media account wrote.

Fox Sports’ Ben Damon wrote: “Wow!”

One user wrote: “Wow. This is utterly absurd.”

Another added: “What an absolute joke! Gee, Racing NSW must be desperate for the money, things must be really bad.”

Fans were quick to slam the call as nothing more than a money grab from those in charge.

One wrote: “Money before safety.”

A second added: “Horse and jockey welfare Clearly paramount in this decision. All about $$$$.”

A third wrote: “Never underestimate the power of the dollar, hahaha. Wow!! On a hiding to nowhere, now. Postpone during meeting or a fall, and it’s open slather for stewards and PVL.”

Peter Moody standing in the water

The track was smashed with heavy rain

Despite the backlash, the sun was shining on the track with conditions in Sydney set to reach 27 degrees with warm sunny conditions forecast and no signs of ranfall.

Randwick track manager Michael Wood said they were “very happy” with the track condition ahead of the day’s racing.

“Pretty wet afternoon and then all that rainfall overnight, we collected 173.3mm since 9am yesterday which took us to 232mm in basically 48 hours,” Wood said on Fox Sports.

“We’ve had our fair share of rain, it was pretty hairy this morning with that storm right on five o’clock which dropped 30mm in about 20 minutes and that led to a bit of water across the track at the 1000m point.

“That subsided really quickly and that’s probably what held things up for the progression of the meeting. But that moved away really quickly, we’re going around on a heavy 10 but we’re very happy.”

Racing NSW chief steward Steve Railton said he was confident conditions would end being fine for racing.

“(It) has not been an easy morning,” Railton said on Sky Sports Radio.

“We’re very confident the track is safe, we’ve got no doubt about that and we will proceed on a Heavy 10.

“(But) we will probably get an upgrade.”