Metal spikes on a race track is a serious deal. The kind of incident that could have led to catastrophic consequences for both horse and jockey.
And that’s exactly what appears to have happened at Kilmore today.
It’s either an act of vandalism, a mistake by a worker or something even more sinister – but police are now involved.
Betsy has been told the metal objects were pieces of steel picket that appear to have been put on the track by someone. Searches were then done and metal detectors used around the track this morning confirming the pieces were confined to the 800m-1000m section.
Track management falls under Racing Victoria executive Jamie McGuinness. Texts are believed to have been sent to participants on Friday morning.
“Interesting start to the day out here at Kilmore with the news of those metal objects found on the track,” Olivia Kold told racing.com this afternoon.
“But the latest that I heard then was that obviously between the 800 metres and the 1,000 metre mark, those metal objects were located this morning. Then ever since then, they have been walking the track. They’ve gone over it a number of times now and also with metal detectors.”
“But as we we’re going live, the confidence levels were strong that, you know, this problem had been dealt with and that would be referred to the relevant authorities going forward.”
Today’s meeting proceeded. It’s not the first time metal stakes have been located on the Kilmore track. In 2018 a meeting was abandoned after metal stakes were found near the 400m mark.
