The Turf Club has concluded an investigation into the five horse fatalities at Clonmel on Friday, 13th June.  The investigation took into account events leading up to the racemeeting and during the fixture.

 

In the lead up to this fixture the Clerk of the Course carried out his pre-race day inspection at Clonmel on the morning of Wednesday, 11th June.  Following that inspection, a text message was issued to say that the ground was yielding following 11 millimetres of rain since Monday.  The racetrack foreman contacted the Turf Club Press Officer on Thursday morning 12th June and a text message was issued shortly after 8 a.m. stating that the ground was now good to yielding with a forecast of warm and generally dry weather for that day and for Friday.

 

A further ground update was issued at 8 a.m. on Friday morning stating that the ground was now good following a dry and warm day on Thursday.  The Clerk of the Course walked the course with the racetrack foreman at lunchtime on Friday and found the ground to be good with a good covering of grass.  The Clerk of the Course noted that the ground was drying out due to the warm and sunny conditions.  The official ground was given as good at that point, but was subsequently changed to good to firm after the fifth race.

 

The conclusions of the investigations were:-

 

(a) Because of the condition of the ground in the lead up to this meeting, it was not necessary for any watering to take place.

 

(b) While there is no doubting the fact that the ground dried considerably on the day, no complaints were received by either the Clerk of the Course or the Stewards from owners, trainers and riders regarding the condition of the ground.

 

(c) There were three withdrawals due to the change in ground and in all cases the Stewards allowed the withdrawals without penalty.

 

(d) No trainer or jockey attributed the fatalities to the state of the ground.