Stalls drama in Chelmsford finale

There was a dramatic conclusion to Saturday’s evening card at Chelmsford, with the final race voided after the tractor was unable to remove the starting stalls from the track.

Nine runners went to post in the closing Best Odds On The Betfair Exchange Handicap over 10 furlongs and as the field turned into the home straight, the stalls were still in the middle of the track.

The jockeys involved acted quickly, spotting the warning flag on the bend with all managing to pull up their horses before reaching the stationary block of stalls.

Alistair Rawlinson was aboard Penzance and he felt all riders involved deserved plenty of credit for safely pulling up and avoiding any accidents.

He told Racing TV: “We were sat second so were one of the first to arrive on the scene, it could have been a disaster. The lads have shown a lot of horsemanship to stop in a short period of time when we’re just about to hit top gear.

“We’ve turned in with near enough two (furlongs) to go, Jonny Peate (on Salamanca) was on my inside and he was rowing away, I was filling my lad up and I saw the starter, who had ran from the stalls, because there’s been a problem, into the middle of the track. I saw the flag, looked up and the stalls were still there and let out a yell.

“We did miraculously well to stop because there were some keen horses in there and we didn’t go overly fast, so to stop that quick, the lads deserve a pat on the back.

“Something should have happened a lot earlier to stop that from happening, but we will obviously speak about that to the stewards and go from there.”

Marco Ghiani, who rode Felix in what was the highest class race on the card, added: “They are much better horses, it was the top race of the day, so they definitely go faster than the rest.

“We should have had more of a warning – in my opinion there should be a flag man in each corner of the track. If we were halfway down the back straight, we would have known and stopped more safely.”

The stewards examined the incident and their report said: “An inquiry was held into the stop flag being deployed in the closing stages of this race, as the stalls were unable to be removed from the course.

“Attending the inquiry was the director of racing, the clerk of the course and trainee clerk of the course, both starters, jockeys Billy Loughnane and Harry Davies, the stalls team leader and the tractor driver.

“As all the runners had pulled up and the judge was unable to declare a result, the race was declared void and a report was forwarded to the head office of the British Horseracing Authority.”