Critics of the Happy Valley C course may have gone off rather too soon in condemning that track as the responsible party after the two falls at the course last weekend.
In fact, a quick check of recent records shows there have been more accidents where you might expect them the least if track shape is to be considered the root cause - at Sha Tin and even the A course.
That was where Philip Cheng fell and later died in September, 2001, and where Gerald Mosse had his nasty accident in April this year.
The Sha Tin B course hosted the fall which caused David Harrison's terrible injuries in May, 2001, and the Sha Tin C track was the venue for a three-horse crash four days later. In fact, Sha Tin C was also the scene of the five-horse pile-up in June this year and another accident involving Perfect Score in December last year.
At Happy Valley, the C+3 track was where the accidents occurred in March, 2001 and April, 2002, that left jockeys Dwayne Dunn and Scott Seamer with back injuries. The three-horse crash at the winning post in November 2001 on Melbourne Cup Day was on the Happy Valley A track.
And, in any case, it would be tough to make the case that the track shape was the cause of any of the crashes, which were mostly down to unsoundness in horses and horse or pilot errors.
