MRC to rethink rail move

The MRC will likely refrain from shifting the rail back to the true position for the finale of the Caulfield Cup Carnival next year after the racing surface was criticised by some for favouring leaders and inside runners on Thousand Guineas Day.

The running rail was in the three-metre position for Caulfield Cup Day but brought back to the true for Thousand Guineas Day a month later, a move which MRC Executive Director Racing and Operations Jake Norton said would likely not be seen again.

“We might have a bit of a tinker with how we went about the track preparation,” Norton said.

“We mightn’t have the rail in the true like we did just if there’s risk of compaction.

“It does tend to become a focus but it’s the first time we’ve run this meeting and I think we’d probably look to move the rail a little bit further out to try and eliminate the possibility of that situation again.”

Norton said results in the back half of the day including Magic Time in the Rupert Clarke Stakes (G1) were pleasing.

“I was pleased with a couple of results towards the end of the program which indicated while there was no disadvantage being close to the fence, you could still win off the fence,” Norton said.

“There’s been a little bit of feedback, particularly from those whose horses settled rear or wide, but I’d prefer to see how the form out of the meeting stacks up from here on in.

“Certainly Tim Bailey’s reaction in the immediate aftermath of the meeting was that an obvious way to quell any of that is to probably have the rail in a similar position to where it is on Caulfield Cup Day.”

More than 7000 racegoers flocked through the gates for the rescheduled Thousand Guineas meeting which was a good result according to the MRC.

“It’s great to have an additional Group 1 meeting for racing fans, punters, our members in the second half of November,” Norton said.

“We’ve wanted to do it for a while and by most metrics it was a success.”