The Jockey Club yesterday pointed the finger at its race starter for the chaos surrounding the final event at Sha Tin on Saturday.
Former leading English jockey Philip Waldron was found to have pressed the button to release the field, despite a horse having broken through the stalls, and then sounded the alarm for a false start. The revelation puts his future with the Club in doubt. Waldron was appointed at the beginning of the season after serving a number of years as starter for the Macau Jockey Club.
The revelations went against his statement on Saturday night in which he claimed the gates had opened when topweight Trader Joe burst through and today a technician from Steriline, the Melbourne-based company which manufactures the stalls, will conduct another check.
Chief stipendiary steward John Schreck said in a report: 'A tape of the race showed the sectional time was displayed on the film of the race about three seconds after the gates opened the first time.
'This is in accordance with the usual practice and this timing device cannot be activated unless the starter presses the button to release the gates. It was further established today that one of the club's technicians, Chan Han-man, had to re-set the starter's button prior to the re-running of the race.
'It was further confirmed that the button had been pressed by the starter which let the horses out for what was later deemed to be a false start,' it added.
