The apparent phantom opening of the Flamingo Park starting gates prior to the fourth race on Monday is not a first time occurrence for many regular watchers of the Monday afternoon entertainment from the Northern Cape.
Bizarre suggestions that included attributing the incident to the presence of the late great legend of horseracing in the region, Peter Miller, were accompanied by public and private statements that it was not the first time that this potentially dangerous event had happened and warranted investigation.
The apparent bowling over of a handler by a breaking horse has been rejected upon inquiry to the controlling authorities, but we asked the powers-that-be to comment after a very brief reference was made to it in the official Stipes Report.
We approached Phumelela and the NHA for clarity.
Deputy Chief Stipendiary Steward( Central Provinces) Thulani Khanyile reported as follows via NHA Racing Control Executive, Arnold Hyde:
During the loading process for race 4 , the gates opened prematurely which resulted in a false start being called by the starter as per the stipes report.
Whilst this was happening a handler who was inside one of the stalls was dragged to the ground by the horse he was attending to.
After reviewing the patrol film there was no evidence that he was run over. The handler suffered some bruising however and he was fit to continue his duties.
The Phumelela race day manager was requested to investigate this matter and he established that one of the horses hit the front starting stall gate, which resulted in all the gates opening – which was confirmed by the starter and track manager who was also at the start.
The race day manager has included this incident in his report which has been handed over to the operator’s management.
Phumelela’s Jay Harrielall
The General Manager: Racing Division of Phumelela Gaming & Leisure Limited, Jay Harrielall, responded as follows:
I have not had an opportunity to review the race in question as I am out of office.
Our Raceday Duty Manager, Darren McEwan explained that as the Starter was about to depress the button, a gate opened prematurely and a false start was declared subsequently.
The Starter confirmed that the gates were checked prior to loading as is the usual procedure.
Darren then went down to the start with Maintenance personnel to ascertain why the gate had opened (all seemed in order and no fault could be found).
It was retested before the next race over the same distance and gave no trouble for the rest of the day.
It’s conjecture whether the horse had in fact struck the gate open or whether the rain had possibly short circuited the starting mechanism of the gate in question.
I perused the NHA stipes report for the race in question where all that was reported was that the gates opened prematurely and a false start was called.
I have tasked Maintenance to do regular tests and Darren to monitor the starting gates going forward in order to check if the problem recurs and what causes it.
