Never too old or experienced to learn. That’s how veteran Stipendiary Steward Ernie Rodrigues explained the omission by officials to pick up the absence of blinkers on the Candice Bass-Robinson trained Babelicious who ran third in the ninth race at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Monday.
Ernie, who started as a trainee Stipe in Durban, takes mandatory age 65 retirement next month after 39 years of distinguished service with the National Horseracing Authority and explained that Monday’s equipment oversight was probably the second incident of its kind under his fifteen year watch at the leafy Rosmead Avenue branch of the racing regulator.
The blinkered Trip To Maputo (Lousi Mxothwa) flies up late to beat Miss World (Corne Orffer). Andrew Fortune is in third on the unblinkered stablemate to the winner, Babelicious (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
The official report states that an investigation has been opened into the circumstances which led to Babelicious (A Fortune), which paraded and proceeded to the start in red earmuffs, racing without blinkers, as carded.
Ernie explained that both of the Bass-Robinson runners, ultimate winner Trip To Maputo and third-placed Babelicious, were declared to run in blinkers in the ninth race.
“Trip To Maputo arrived in the parade ring without blinkers. Babelicious was wearing the temporary red hood, which is removed at the start. We sent Trip To Maputo back for the blinkers, but in the rush of the pre-race and that distraction of the stable companion, Babelicious, who had the hood on, was not detected without the blinkers,” explained Ernie.
He went on to add that it was inexcusable that the equipment fault had not been detected by his team, but that the temporary hood had covered that up.
“We are never too old or experienced to learn! It’s the trainer’s responsibility to send runners out correctly equipped as declared, but it’s our function to police that aspect. We are busy in that time, but that is not an excuse and we will learn from it,” he added.
The Sporting Post tried unsuccessfully this afternoon to contact the trainer for a comment.
