BATHURST Thoroughbred Racing manager Michelle Tarpenning has welcomed the news of Racing NSW’s $500,000 rescue package for both trainers and owners in the Southern Districts and Central West regions.
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Tuesday’s announcement came on the back of the region’s many lost meetings due to the prolonged wet weather over winter.
“The support is much welcomed and appreciated. At Bathurst we had the course closed over three months and … we had stables flooded at some stages in that time. Because of the turf’s condition the trainers were only able to use the sand track,” Tarpenning said.
“Trainers can’t gallop the horses on turf and that means they can’t position their horses on the rail, which is an important thing when teaching young horses.
“It’s a great initiative from Racing NSW. Training is already hard enough but it’s made harder when trainers aren’t able to get to any racing.
“We lost three meetings here at Bathurst and I don’t believe that’s something that’s ever happened here before.”
Funding will be available upon application for damaged training gear.
It was estimated that approximately 400 individual horses trained in either SDRA or CDWRA have missed a start at least one of the 13 cancelled meetings in the last six weeks.