The Melbourne Racing Club say they accept the criticism of their Caulfield track on Saturday but blame the situation on their ’tired’ surface needing a refurbishment, remaining confident it will handle winter racing and be fit for purpose for their Spring Carnival.
The Caulfield track again raced below par on Saturday, with riders coming wide early chasing better ground, a surprise given the lack of recent racing and the rail being placed back in the true position. The track was officially rated a Heavy 8.
The club did not want to comment publicly on Sunday, but communicated to Betsy they accepted the criticism of the track on the back of Saturday’s racing.
Punters were especially vocal on Saturday, questioning why the track had deteriorated over the last two months.
The Caulfield track first raced poorly in March for the Group 1 William Reid Stakes.
The club said post that meeting that their track ”didn’t perform to the standard we expected”. Saturday’s dramas follow Sandown being criticised for its racing surface the week prior.
The feedback from those at the club who Betsy spoke to blame the age of the Caulfield track and rejected any suggestion there has been any difference from how the track has been managed in the last 12 months when the surface was racing well.
The club blames Caulfield’s woes on a heavy workload, the need for refurbishment which will occur late in 2026, recent rain and say Caulfield’s issues are irrelevant to the problems it is facing at Sandown. The Caulfield track will again be forced to cover at least one transferred Moonee Valley meeting alongside their premier racing this spring, and Sandown even more.
The club denied, however, that a new roller had been used on the track, that they were over watering any of their surfaces or that a new kind of fertiliser was being used that may impact drainage.
The club also said they increases their investment in track management by millions of dollars this year and will invest more in the next financial year.
They were also adamant despite some changes across the management of the tracks at the MRC over the past 12 months – including the hiring Kenneth Neff as an consultant – that there had been no changes on how the tracks were being managed.
Feedback from participants on Saturday was that there was a varying degree of firmness on parts of the track, with the overwhelming view that the wider parts were deemed better and jockeys rode as such.
The club’s track manager Sam Bennetts said pre-race day he expected jockeys to come off the rail – which was in the true position – but punters were astonished just how wide some came.
The track received criticism from across various parts of the industry on Saturday, including on Channel 7.
‘’All the jockeys are getting 10, 15 off the rail,’’ Channel 7 host Jason Richardson said post race 8 on Saturday.
‘’Let’s call it how it is, it’s simply not good enough for a metropolitan Saturday at Caulfield. We haven’t raced there in a while and this is craziness.’’
“Let’s call it how it is, it’s simply not good enough” 😬
Fair to say the outside fence is the place to be at Caulfield… pic.twitter.com/w0tfzok64W
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) May 30, 2026
Champion jockey Glenn Boss said on Channel 7 post race 8, ”it just looks like a ploughed paddock to me. Soon they’ll be riding in the bar.”
Ironically, the next winner came via an inspired ride by Jett Stanley via the rail.
Stanley said that the outside had become ”chopped up” from riders seeking better ground.
”You don’t become great by following people and being a sheep,” Stanley said post-race.
“You put your neck on the line. I thought I’d be a genius or an idiot and I turned out to be a genius.
“I thought ‘if they’re losing six or seven lengths going around I might as well sneak up, skip those five or six (lengths) on them and get the job done’. Outside is chopped up all day now … we’re up to Race 9, the inside hasn’t been touched, it’s fresh grass – go there.”
Social media too was highly critical of the way the Caulfield track played again on Saturday.
Caulfield clearly a tired track in need of a break.
RV/ MRC need to look at moving some meetings to give it some time ahead of a busy Spring Carnival.
Racing well below how it should be in 2026 with the increased workload.— Trav Noonan (@TravTurf) May 30, 2026
Hard to believe what we saw there in the last at Caulfield !
It’s a very wide track Caulfield.
Going to be a looong winter !— Bryan Martin OAM (@bmracingclub) May 30, 2026
Caulfield, Rail True. pic.twitter.com/JOyI46NisP
— 2 UNITS (@2unitspodcast) May 30, 2026
Race to the outside fence at Caulfield. Embarrassing.
— Tom Haylock (@thaylock) May 30, 2026
Whatever happens after this weekend, surely the first thing the MRC has to do is get Jason Kerr back to oversee Caulfield and Sandown. It’s impossible to believe these are the same tracks that we bet on last year. Impossible
— Peter Lawrence (@PeterLawrence18) May 30, 2026
Meanwhile look at this embarrassment at Caulfield rail true fresh ground
Dakotah Keane from barrier one on Choir Point made a few look like amateurs who haven’t bothered to check how the track is playing
Were they having a sleep in the jockeys room? pic.twitter.com/D8yB9jOP1Y
— ralph horowitz (@rtralphy) May 30, 2026
Racing returns to Caulfield on June 27.
