Prominent owner John O’Neill has described the Caulfield track as a ‘disgrace’ and ‘unprofessional’ that was not fit for city racing, likening it to an amateur picnic track where the inside was like running on ‘quicksand’.
O’Neill is in the ownership group of Jimmysstar, who was the favourite for the Group 1 William Reid Stakes which was run at Caulfield on Saturday. He is also a board member of the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association and won the 2021 Melbourne Cup with Verry Elleegant.
Jimmysstar, a multiple Group 1 winner, returned post-race with two black eyes, something O’Neill blamed on the ‘crap’ coming off the track.
The Melbourne Racing Club told Betsy on Sunday it was ‘comfortable’ with how the track played, despite clear advantages running in lanes 6-8, with 9 out of 10 winners coming from there in the last 200m.
The club did however acknowledge the impact of hosting Moonee Valley’s meetings during their redevelopment.
‘’The track was a disgrace; it was like Woolamai [a picnic track]. I don’t know if anybody’s been there before but do yourselves a favour over Easter go for a drive down to Woolamai and have a little bit of a look,’’ he said on SEN Track on Monday.
‘’I understand that [track manager Michael Suey] needs to defend the position but surprise, surprise there was going to be more racing on these tracks because Mooney Valley’s not there.
‘’That was an unprofessional surface, not fit for city racing under any circumstances.’’
O’Neill said the inside part of the track was like racing on ‘quicksand’.
‘’It’s disgraceful. Lanes one, two, three, four were absolute quicksand. It was disastrous. But one thing I will say is that we are in an outdoor sport; Hawkesy [Wayne Hawkes] raises this all of the time and I agree with that.’’
O’Neill was quick to congratulate the winner of the William Reid Stakes, trainer Cindy Alderson, who won with Jigsaw while also noted the work Chris Waller had done with Angel Capital, who finished second.
O’Neill revealed Jimmysstar’s jockey, Mark Zahra, told owners before the race if he couldn’t leave the inside part of the track from barrier 1 ‘we’re not going to win’’.
‘’So prior to the race, we spoke to Mark and said, what do you want to do?’’ O’Neill said on SEN Track.
‘’And, he said, I am really concerned about the inside. The first, three or four lanes are no good, absolutely, no good .
‘’So what I am going to have to do is jump and have a look and see if I can get off at some stage because we’re not going to win going up the inside.
‘’Now we’re drawn [barier] one, so he said if I miss a start a bit, I’ll have a bit of a look and see if I can start to get off the rail somehow because there’s no chance we’re going to win if we do that.
‘’Now so when we jump, he misses the start a length and a bit. He has a bit of look and tries to get off and he can’t get off. Tropicus who’s airborne, who may I say won the group one couple of weeks ago.
‘’Well, it’s run tailed off because it was back near the inside.
”Please don’t tell me the inside was any good, anybody. So, it’s run tailed off. It did give us a bump at the start, which is part of racing.
‘’We then got ourselves to the stage where he was trying to get off, and he couldn’t under any circumstances. So, he sat there, hoping something would open by that time. All the momentum was down the outside.’’
SIX IN A ROW AND AN AUSSIE GROUP 1 FOR JIGSAW 🧩
The most improved horse in Australia does it again in the William Reid! Logan Bates and Cindy Alderson have an Australian Group 1 😍@Logez27 @aldersonracing pic.twitter.com/sqWn419PFq
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) March 21, 2026
Jimmysstar eventually finished fifth, but also needed medical care post-race.
‘’Now, he’s come back with a couple of massive black eyes after the race, which again shows the clogs and the crap that was coming up off the track. That happens … but to have two massive black eyes straight after the race was something that the guys hadn’t seen before. And then obviously, we had to scope him because we were concerned.’’
O’Neill said the scopes revealed Jimmysstar had swallowed ‘’a heap of mud’’.
‘’So at the end of the day for the people that backed Jimmy, I am only trying to give some excuses. There is no sour grapes on the horses beating Jimmy. It’s an outdoor sport and that’s life, right? We put up with that.’’
On the flipside, O’Neill said the club put on great hospitality.
‘’But what I will say is Caulfield, loved the environment. I was looked after beautifully. We invested in a box. I had clients there. I saw Hawksy was a wonderful day, they put on extraordinary entertainment at Caulfield.’’
