Despite it being incumbent on trainers to finalise their Declarations by the advertised closing time in terms of the Racing Operators’ Conditions and the Rules, some trainers persist with failing to declare on time or call a few minutes prior to closing and finalise their declarations well after the advertised closing time, with adverse implications as recently witnessed.
To prevent further occurrences of a similar nature, the NRB is left with no alternative but to enforce a system cut off at the advertised closing time with effect from 4 May 2015.
In other words “the system will AUTOMATICALLY shut down at the declaration deadline times applicable with NO HUMAN INTERVENTION possible thereafter.” This entails that if a trainer has 10 entries and by closing time only finalized 3 declarations and the system cuts off, the balance of the 7 entries will be declared as did not call on time and subject to elimination.
Excuses such as “bad line” or slow operator will not be accepted.
The system time will be checked daily so there can be no disputes in that regard.
Further, ‘did not call horses’ may be subject to being withdrawn from the field by the NRB for delaying or preventing the timely finalization of fields. There will be NO refunds on horses declared as did not call even if they are eliminated or withdrawn.
The imposition of the “automatic cut off system” places an onus on the trainer to allow sufficient time to finalize declarations taking into account external factors and excuses.
