Open letter from the Cootamundra Turf Club...
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THE Cootamundra Turf Club would like to sincerely apologise for the unfortunate events last Sunday, resulting in the abandonment of the 2014 Darley Cootamundra Cup race meeting.
We certainly appreciate this has caused a great deal of inconvenience to many people, in particular our wonderful sponsors and the great number of locals who planned on attending a great day’s racing.
We hope yesterday’s events will not create the perception to some that our Club is poorly managed and operated – and would like to assure you this could not be further from the truth. No one is more upset at having to cancel the race meeting than our committee. An incredible amount of work had been done in the lead up to the event and we appeared set to be handsomely rewarded for our efforts. The track was in magnificent order, we had good quality and capacity fields in every race and the support from local sponsors and patrons was incredible with a record crowd tipped for the day – even the weather gods were on our side with a fine and sunny day, 29 degrees and little wind.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we have been receiving advice from every quarter on how we should have done things differently to prevent the meeting being abandoned. Just to be clear, a sprinkler, hose or tap was not left on overnight. We water our track using a pod system which connects to bayonets on the inside of the track. We have been watering the track day and night in preparation for the race meeting for the last 6 weeks without incident. Most unfortunately, the bayonet at the 1100m mark split or burst sometime overnight resulting in a small section of the track becoming waterlogged. The timing of this happening is incredibly frustrating - if this had occurred 24 hours either side of race day there would not have been a problem with the race meeting going ahead.
There was no surface water on the track and due to the small section of the track involved, the issue wasn’t detected upon our early morning track inspection. The problem was only discovered when the batteries used to operate the barriers were being installed. At that time, everything possible was considered to try and make the meeting go ahead, however stewards decided it was unsafe to continue, as the horses would be travelling from a very firm section of track to a wet/soft part of track, increasing the chances of injury to both horses and jockeys.
The Turf Club committee has already made plans to replace the irrigation pipe surrounding the entire track and this will be completed within the coming months. Further, changes will be made to our watering and track inspection procedures to ensure the chances of a similar event reoccurring are minimal, and if there is a problem, it is detected in a more timely manner.
I would like to reiterate that the committee of the Turf Club are as disappointed as anyone of how events unfolded yesterday. In brief, this new committee was formed approximately two years ago to breathe new life into Darley Cootamundra Cup Day, and up until yesterday I would like to think we have been doing a stellar job. Whilst upset that yesterday’s Cup Meeting had to be abandoned, we are committed to ensuring the 2015 Darley Cootamundra Cup is bigger than ever, and we sincerely seek your faith and continued support in this regard.
We would genuinely like to thank the great number of people who remained on course and certainly hope you still had an enjoyable time. It was encouraging to see so many people participate in the fashions on the field and enjoy the hospitality on offer. The committee members also greatly appreciate the number of people who maintained such a positive attitude throughout the day and thank you for your encouraging comments and best wishes. We would like to pay particular mention to the Rugby League Old Boys, Sacred Heart P and F, Peta Glover and the workers in the XXXX Gold Marquee for continuing to work so hard and making the day as enjoyable as it possibly could be.
Due to the busy racing calendar, it is unlikely that Darley Cootamundra Cup Day will be able to be rescheduled to another day. Unfortunately, this is a decision made by Racing NSW and is out of the hands of the Cootamundra Turf Club Committee.
The committee will endeavour to contact all of our sponsors and people who purchased tickets to the XXXX Gold Marquee in the coming days to discuss financial arrangements, refunds etc.
Once again, we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to everyone involved in yesterday’s race meeting. I would genuinely like to assure you, that the efforts of everyone involved in the preparations for yesterday’s races cannot be questioned and whilst we are all somewhat deflated at present, our commitment and enthusiasm remains to make Darley Cootamundra Cup day a successful and permanent event on the local racing and social calendar.
We hope to see you at Cootamundra Cup Day in 2015.
Yours Sincerely,
Brad Shields - President, Cootamundra Turf Club