Dear Paul,
I am writing as a follow up to my email sent on Friday 21st January which did not receive a reply and needs to be addressed.
BOTRA has received a high volume of calls and messages in relation to the TTC meeting on January 26th since Friday the 21st. Participants are outraged with the way the fields for this meeting were prepared and feel the manner in which this situation was handled shows a lack of respect for industry participants and has them questioning whether TasRacing and ORI have the best interest of the industry in mind.
The original decision to do the fields Friday and ignore the unfulfilled engagement rule was a complete undermining of the values of those within the industry. It would appear that the fields were in fact prepared on Friday and then merely released on Monday in an attempt to deceive the industry participants that the unfulfilled engagement rule was in fact complied with. The unfulfilled engagement rule applies to the preparation of fields, therefore preparing the fields on Friday, whilst ignoring that rule and then merely releasing the fields on Monday does not make the fields compliant with that rule. This was a deception of the industry that the industry has noticed.
The way these fields were prepared raises a number of issues; it does not promote the value of getting everyone a run when possible. A number horses will be left at home in a paddock having not raced last weekend and not racing Wednesday whilst 14 horses will have their third start in a 6-day period. This in itself raises another issue of animal welfare. To allow horses to race three times in the space of 6 days when many of these horses have shown an inability to perform at their best when raced twice in 3 days. There is little chance that any of these horses will have had an opportunity to fully recover from their previous two starts, especially when travel and time standing at a racecourse are added into the equation.
This decision and attempted deception of the industry and its participants requires a thorough response and failure to receive an adequate response will leave BOTRA no choice but to take further action on behalf of its participants and make a public statement about this situation. After all, BOTRA’s role is to represent the industry participants to the greatest extent possible and take a stand for its members.
Regards,
Shaun Kennedy
BOTRA Tasmania President