LARRY'S VIEW - 'SAFETY FIRST' IS A SOUND POLICY

By Larry Cassidy | Friday, November 11, 2011

Larry Cassidy currently has forty-two Group 1 successes behind his name. He is a multiple Premiership winning jockey having taken out three titles in Sydney and one in Brisbane. Larry’s View, the personal blog of this top class rider will appear on horseracingonly.com.au every Friday, workload permitting.

Some punters might have been confused about the reason for the delay between races at Eagle Farm on Wednesday.

I know jockeys always take a beating when they are to ones to bring up safety issues, but I can assure you that it is a jockey’s business to ride in races so no rider will ever manufacture a reason to cause a delay or cancellation of any races. That will only loom as a possibility when jockeys have a legitimate cause for concern … as they did on Wednesday.

After race one a couple of riders were concerned about the situation on the track where the old crossing used to be. After race two it was the same and after the next couple of races that was pretty much it. Several horses in the first few races blundered quite badly.

We all had a bit of a chat and decided that a few of us would go around with the stewards to have a look at that section of the track.

I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t actually have a problem. I myself had a couple of rides in the first half of the card and I had no problem at all, but I would always certainly back up those jockeys whose mounts were affected and who had real concerns. Whatever they chose to do I was sticking by them.

The old crossing is slightly higher but, with the rail being out ten metres on the day, that brought another aspect of the old crossing into play. Wider out, the level of the track actually drops away quite significantly … perhaps four inches.

When you are travelling at speed and you get a higher bit of ground and then a lower bit of ground, horses are blundering. Horses are approaching that uneven area at speed and those back in the pack are getting no warning that the change of conditions are coming so, as you can imagine, there could be serious consequences.

I’m not only talking about a horse falling and possibly bringing other horses down, but a horse can hurt itself in the running when it goes over uneven terrain at a full gallop. They can jar up by hitting the lower side of the ground, so it can be quite dangerous all around.

The stewards and some senior jockeys went out and looked at the situation. They agreed that moving the rail in three metres would alleviate much of the problem and they proceeded to do that. That proved to be a workable solution for the day and racing was able to continue once those changes had been made.

After we went out again, I sat behind the leader in the race. The rail was a bit wobbly in places. I was actually trying to look past the leader to just see where the rail was because they did say it comes out at you a little bit.

All of a sudden if you were following the fence, there was a little elbow on the fence at one stage. If you are too close to it you are going to hit it. So I was sort of just trying to give myself a bit of room because of that.

I wanted to make certain, not only that I didn’t hit it, but that the horse didn’t get unbalanced at any time which would have slowed it down.

The officials did their best in the circumstances. They were able to move the rail and that half solved the problem because we were no longer having to race out on the part of the track where it drops away quite badly.

There is still a problem that needs to be fixed now that it has been brought into focus. Even when the rail is in slightly, there is still a slight dip. I would say they’d have to start looking at that.

These things will happen from time to time. Everyone understands that safety has to be the main priority out on the track and if a meeting has to endure a minor disruption … as it did on Wednesday at Eagle Farm … to ensure that those safety needs are being fully met then so be it.

It’s much better than the alternative.

Till next week,
Larry.

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