Lower-than-usual acceptances and a lack of available jockeys have led to the unfortunate abandonment of the picnic meeting scheduled at Geurie on Saturday.
A handful of trainers that would usually nominate horses to race at similar picnic meetings have elected to race elsewhere on Saturday, while at least eight picnic jockeys weren’t available to take rides for various reasons.
Geurie last raced in 2020 and had been planning for a bumper crowd since getting approval to move their annual race meeting from the warmer January/February period to a more pleasant September timeslot.
Unfortunately for the Club, Racing NSW’s decision to change two programmed races approximately one month out from the meeting has caused a stir.
The races changed were two Class B Handicaps, which are now a 1400m Class 2 Trophy Handicap and 1000m Class Three Trophy Handicap.
Trainers who had not nominated for the meeting voiced their concerns on social media, raising two issues in particular.
The first was that they were given no notice by Racing NSW about the programming changes, which were published in their original form in the most recent Racing NSW Magazine.
The second issue is that their lower-class horses were then disadvantaged by the changes with Class B Handicaps catering for lower-tier horses.
As a result, only 16 stables nominated horses, which totalled 38 nominations for the meeting.
A lack of regular trainers nominating their horses for the program then led to jockeys not being afforded the same opportunities.
While the term boycott wasn’t ushered, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, indeed it is a duck, right?
It appears at face value, intentionally or not, that trainers and jockeys avoided the program, leading to the lower-than-required number of acceptances.
This left Racing NSW with no choice but to abandon the program on Thursday morning.
Earlier this week, NSW Country and Picnic Racing reached out to Racing NSW regarding the backlash on social media around the abovementioned changes to the Geurie program and the lower-than-usual nominations.
We asked if they could confirm if trainers and jockeys were boycotting the meeting due to these changes.
We also asked if Racing NSW could confirm why the two Class B Handicaps were changed, what instigated the changes, and what Racing NSW was doing to ensure that Geurie raced on Saturday.
Racing NSW General Manager – Industry & Analysis, Scott Kennedy, replied this morning.
While he was disappointed to confirm the meeting had been abandoned, he could not offer any more information about the reasons behind the abandonment, as they were now the focus of Racing NSW Investigators.
“Regrettably, the Geurie meeting has been abandoned due to insufficient acceptances. This is very disappointing, especially for the participants, the Club and racegoers,” Mr Kennedy said.
“Racing NSW does not comment on matters that are being investigated unless charges are made so as not to tarnish the name of the person or party subject to the investigation.”
Any abandonment is a poor result for the Club and community involved, and NSW Country and Picnic Racing do feel for the Geurie Picnic Race Club and their volunteers.
