HKJC officials: No problem with the track, just extreme rainfall

Hong Kong Jockey Club officials have reassured participants and punters that yesterday’s abandonment of two races at Sha Tin was caused by unprecedented rainfall and drainage pressure – not by an underlying issue with the track surface itself.

More than 140 millimeters of rain had fallen since early Sunday morning. After the seventh race, two jockeys reported that their mounts lost stride at the 550-meter mark on the turn into the straight.

The affected patch, only about one – to two-horse lengths in size, was identified as a catchment point where runoff from the 1,000m chute drains into a single channel.

“Probably a one-off,” said HKJC Head of Raceday operations Stephen Higgins. “We’ve had unprecedented amounts of rainfall through the summer – the most black rainstorms on record. With that you do sometimes see marginal changes in the way tracks drain.

“While we were there it was improving. In another 35 minutes it was probably raceable, but the jockeys weren’t comfortable and we supported them in that decision.”

Officials stressed that the problem was a result of the sheer volume of water hitting one drainage point, rather than any weakness in the turf itself.

In normal conditions, Sha Tin’s surface is regarded as one of the most consistent in world racing and remarkable in its capacity to handle monsoon-like rainfall.

Higgins said similar challenges had occasionally occurred when heavy rainfall overwhelms specific drainage channels, but that generally the system performs exceptionally well.

“It’s an unusual situation brought on by extreme rainfall,” he said. “There is no underlying problem with the track itself.”