Leading Sydney trainer Joseph Pride has labeled the Kensington track at Randwick a disgrace after large clods were ripped from surface during the eight race meeting on Saturday.
Joseph Pride was far from happy with the state of the Kensington track on Saturday. Photo by: Daniel Costello
The Kensington surface was questioned by Chris Waller in the lead-up to the meeting on Saturday, but it was Pride, who had Impulsive Spirit, Casual Choice and Society Man all beaten as favourites that led the tide of criticism against the track this weekend.
Pride took to Twitter on Saturday to criticise the track and told Racing Ahead this morning that he was disappointed a Saturday metropolitan meeting had been held on such a poor surface.
“It is not for me to say or fix really, but when we turn up on Saturday for a metropolitan meeting I think that we are entitled to get a surface which is fair and equal,” Pride said.
“I thought that what we turned up to on Saturday was well below par and the chief steward agreed with me.
“It was extremely loose, I’ve never seen clods fly up like they were flying up out of that track, they were the size of dinner plates on a dead track.
“I was just disappointed.
“I aimed up a big team of horses at the meeting and I started three favourites on the day and I just feel that me and the punters that backed them were denied a fair go.”
Pride was not the only trainer that criticised the Kensington surface on Saturday, but he is not expecting his fellow trainers to unite against the track and is even more pessimistic about getting a positive response from the Australian Turf Club.
“Sometimes I think they keep their heads in the sand over these types of things and they hope that it is forgotten by next week,” Pride said about the ATC.
“There have been a lot of things that we could have united on over the years, but we don’t do it.
“It is a nice thought, but it just doesn’t happen.
“I won’t be taking anything back there.”
The New South Wales metropolitan meeting on Wednesday is set to take place at Warwick Farm and Pride will have Maluti, Hey Hey Renee, Cwmbran and Unimpeachable in action.
