Track fined for abandoned race meeting

The racecourse may also have to compensate owners, jockeys and trainers following the incident last year.

A two-day Jockey Club inquiry, which ended on Tuesday in London, said that Redcar had been unfit for racing on the day and imposed the fine on the course.

The meeting in question - on May 14 last year - was abandoned after a hastily-organised inspection of the course found the track to be in an unraceable condition.

Newmarket-based trainer Nick Littmoden and a delegation of officials, trainers, owners and jockeys had highlighted the appalling state of the course to Redcar stewards, who decided to cancel the meeting.

Five minutes after the advertised first race time, racegoers were told in an announcement that the meeting had been called off "in the interests of safety, due to the track being rough and uneven."

A Jockey Club statement said it was: "Satisfied that on May 14 there was a substantial number of unfilled holes in the final two furlongs caused by horses' hooves at a previous meeting, which had not been repaired, and as a result the course was unfit for racing."

After walking the course at the time, stewards' secretary Anthony Gillam said: "The ground is not safe for horse and rider from a welfare angle.

"You could not ask horses to race on it and it obviously follows that it was not safe to ride on. It was a unanimous decision by the stewards."

Management at Redcar Racecourse did not want to comment in detail about the committee's findings, but issued the following statement.

It read: "The directors and management of Redcar consider the decision of the disciplinary committee following the inquiry into the abandonment of racing on May 14, 2001, to be regrettable, but do not feel it appropriate to make any further comment.

"That one day apart, Redcar's 2001 season was one of the most successful of recent years and Redcar is eagerly looking forward to the start of its 2002 season."