Warren Calls For More Research Into Firm Tracks

The fallout has continued from last Saturday’s Caulfield race meeting with Jason Warren leading the calls from trainers about the state of the track.

Warren has refuted claims made by stewards that only five horses were found to have jarred up from the Good rated surface they experienced on the day.

He says that those results are only limited to those horses which ran poorly or showed instant symptoms and not those which may have been affected in the following days.

“It effects different horses in different ways,” he said.

“As a trainer we’ve got to then bring these horses home and patch them up.

“Some horses cope with them and some horses don’t.”

He said while some may show signs of soreness as soon as they step off the track for others the effects of running on hard ground could take longer to develop.

“It could be when they get off the float, or the next morning or consecutive days following that,” he said.

Warren himself only had one runner on the day in Total Liberty who flashed home late in Race 1 to finish second.

He says because she performed well there were no questions in regards to whether or not she handled the track and that could be the same for plenty of others.

“My little mare ran out of her skin on the weekend, she was very much jaded the next day,” he said.

He says stewards didn’t follow up with him about any issues he had with the surface but acknowledged if he did have any major concerns it was probably his responsibility to alert them.

“Stewards probably expect trainers to let them know if horses pull up not quite right and that’s probably our job,” he said.

“But if they’ve only, pulled up a little bit scratchy and they come good in a couple of days you’re probably not going to worry about it.”

He said track managers are copping plenty of flack for the state of the track and that he applauded the work of trainers who had the courage to withdraw their horses if required

“Track managers over the board probably see trainers as a whinging group of people,” he said.

“Rick Hore Lacy pulled his horse (Chase The Rainbow) out on the weekend because the track was too firm and I take my hat off to him,” he said.

That being said though Warren says a more thorough debrief is needed across all stables, not just the major players.

“Only the horses in the limelight are followed up on,” he said.

“If a horse goes off and the prep is effected badly from a horse jarring up they sort of go off the scene and no one hears about it.”

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