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Starter at fault over race chaos

Robin Parke

The Jockey Club yesterday pointed the finger at its race starter for the chaos surrounding the final event at Sha Tin on Saturday.

Former leading English jockey Philip Waldron was found to have pressed the button to release the field, despite a horse having broken through the stalls, and then sounded the alarm for a false start. The revelation puts his future with the Club in doubt. Waldron was appointed at the beginning of the season after serving a number of years as starter for the Macau Jockey Club.

The revelations went against his statement on Saturday night in which he claimed the gates had opened when topweight Trader Joe burst through and today a technician from Steriline, the Melbourne-based company which manufactures the stalls, will conduct another check.

Chief stipendiary steward John Schreck said in a report: 'A tape of the race showed the sectional time was displayed on the film of the race about three seconds after the gates opened the first time.

'This is in accordance with the usual practice and this timing device cannot be activated unless the starter presses the button to release the gates. It was further established today that one of the club's technicians, Chan Han-man, had to re-set the starter's button prior to the re-running of the race.

'It was further confirmed that the button had been pressed by the starter which let the horses out for what was later deemed to be a false start,' it added.

Hong Kong racegoers have been used for decades to a bell ringing when a start has been effected and the race officially under way. The report states: 'There is a back-up device in the judge's box which can be activated by the judge if, for some reason, there is a malfunction and the bell does not ring when the starter releases the gates.'

Then came the news that the bell had actually rung on Saturday, although it was not mentioned at the time and nor had any officials recalled hearing it.

'On Saturday, when race 10 was originally started, the bell in question was activated. Mr K. L. Cheng, who was the judge on duty, today advised the inquiry that he on this occasion did not activate the bell,' the report stated.

Waldron, who first came to Hong Kong as a Club jockey in the mid-1980s, was then called upon to give fresh evidence and re-confirmed to the best of his knowledge that he had not pressed the start button.

The Jockey Club statement added: 'But he [Waldron] conceded the evidence he had been made aware of today clearly established in fact he, as starter, did press the start button.'

Outside his usual panel, Schreck had Joseph C. K. Yam as chairman of the race meeting stewards and Nick Etches as the voting member.

The report concludes by saying: 'In respect of the evidence submitted by Mr Waldron on Saturday night and further evidence that he gave today, it was decided by the race meeting stewards that they do not consider it appropriate for them to take the matter any further or indeed whether the rules permit them to do so.

'They therefore decided to submit a full transcript of today's inquiry together with this report to the executive director, racing, for any action that, in the circumstances, he may deem necessary.'

It was also confirmed yesterday that there were no procedures in place for the stipendiary stewards panel to inform the public that the last race was to be re-run. As a result they watched in frustration as hundreds made their way from the course.

What is now certain to happen - in the unlikely event of something similar happening - is a communication to racegoers via the public address system and also a suitable display on the videomatrix and closed-circuit television screens.

Other matters under review after the controversial race 10 will be the operation of the starting gate and the Rules of Racing concerning the starting process.

Management will then make appropriate recommendations to the board of stewards.

'When we review the entire incident and look into how we can improve our procedures, we do have to take into consideration the false-start practices of other racing jurisdictions,' Jockey Club chief executive Lawrence Wong said last night.

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