The Hong Kong Jockey Club yesterday instituted a new system for drawing barriers after acceptances, involving owners, trainers or other personalities.
Jockey Club official Cheng Ki-leung, who acts as the photo finish judge on race day, demonstrated the new system after fields had been finalised for Sunday's Chief Executive's Cup meeting.
While a number of trainers privately wondered why the club should change a system that worked perfectly well, executive director of racing Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges explained the new concept was 'all about total transparency'.
'There have been a number of stories in certain sections of the media where some owners and even trainers have questioned the fairness of the system because they say their horses keep getting bad barriers,' Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
'It's all about public confidence. While every barrier draw is attended by stipendiary stewards and auditors and has always been totally above board, we believe a more public drawing of barriers like this will be a good thing for public confidence. It's open, transparent, and proves that the system is totally random.' Cheng said barrier draws for all race meetings will be conducted in the Weighing Room at Sha Tin.
'Firstly, we would generate an initial barrier draw numbers report at random by computer, print it out and keep it in a sealed envelope so that no person involved in the draw process would be able to see it,' Cheng said. 'Then, a trainer or owner representative will key in a self-selected split number for each race for re-sequencing the initial barrier draw numbers. The envelope containing the initial barrier draw numbers for each race would then be opened and the report would be confirmed and signed by the trainer or owner representative.