No decision on future of Super Saturday card

Racegoers are informed of abandonment

Even as the Newbury racecourse executive began the task of investigating the reasons behind two horses being killed in the parade ring on one of their biggest days in the year, there was also the question of whether the meeting could be rescheduled.

The card, which is billed as Super Saturday, is considered one of the major trial meetings for the Cheltenham Festival, staging both the Game Spirit and Aon Chases, as well as one of the most valuable handicap hurdles in the calendar with the totesport Trophy.

Having taken the decision to abandon the card Stephen Higgins, the managing director of the racecourse, said: "We'd like to give our condolences to the connections of those two horses. It's the most bizarre circumstances that most of us here have ever seen."

Higgins felt that there was no alternative but to cancel the remainder of the fixture when he was not able to provide sufficient level of safeguards at a meeting with the racecourse stewards. "We had a stewards' inquiry and the stewards asked me could I guarantee there wouldn't be another problem," Higgins explained. "And I said I can't give that guarantee and, on that basis, we thought that it would be in both the best interest of horses and humans that we called a halt to today's racing."

Higgins did not want to be drawn on the probable cause of the fatalities although experts from Southern Electric were already on the site. "It would be speculation at this moment in time. There seems to be that theory - we're speaking to the relevant authorities and we're going to check out the area in question. But, at this moment in time, suggesting it could be anything would be speculating until we've got the facts."

The prospect of the meeting being rescheduled is under discussion between the racecourse executive, the BHA and Levy Board. However, any attempt to run the card at Newbury later this week could only be considered after a full investigation of the causes of the fatalities. "We'll speak to the BHA - we're already doing that - and the Levy Board will have to be consulted. But, if it's at all possible to do, we will do something later in the week. But we need to establish what the issue is here in the paddock and, until we've done that, we wouldn't be able to commit to anything."

A knock-on effect for Nigel Twiston-Davies, the trainer of Cheltenham Gold Cup market leader Imperial Commander, is that he will not be working the defending champion at the track tomorrow morning.

Nicky Henderson was one of those trainers keen to see the meeting rescheduled. "I'm afraid we're going to push very, very hard. I pushed Newbury a bit hard earlier in the year [when the Fighting Fifth Hurdle was switched to Newbury after the meeting at Newcastle was abandoned] to reschedule a race. But we all need these races desperately badly now," he said.

"We're getting too close to Cheltenham - there's nowhere else for them to go and it's absolutely vital to racing."

The meeting had been lost to the weather 11 times before and the totesport Trophy has never been restaged although the Aon Chase was in 2009.

However, whether any revamped card could take place at Newbury in the near future must be in doubt until a full investigation can guarantee the safety of horses and humans.

In 1989 the St Leger was switched from Doncaster to Ayr after the meeting at the South Yorkshire track had to be abandoned because of collapsed drain in the home straight.

It began when Madraco fell when leading the field in the Portland Handicap, bringing down two other horses. Two days later, when another horse came down, the rest of the fixture had to be scrapped and the St Leger re-routed to Ayr eight days later.

Paul Wheeler

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