Gold Circle’s Graeme Hawkins.
The start of Race 9 at Clairwood on Sunday (15 June 2014) was delayed as a result of an electrical problem which caused current to run through the starting gates, thereby shocking the horses, riders and handlers.
In a press release issued on Thursday 19 June, Gold Circle clarified the issue.
The Dennis Bosch trained Your Worship, with MJ Byleveld on board, was the worst affected and had to be scratched.
Following a subsequent inspection of the starting gates it was discovered that a cable linking the start-bell to the gates was damaged between races 8 and 9. After disconnecting the damaged cable a manual start for races 9 and 10 was successfully effected without further incident.
“The fault has now been rectified and no further problems are expected,” said Gold Circle Racing Executive Graeme Hawkins. “The starting gates were recently imported from Australia and are of the highest quality. But clearly we were caught off guard by the damaged cable and we apologise unreservedly for the incident which we view in a very serious light,” he added
