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<\/p>\nAn investigation has been launched into Tasmania’s premier thoroughbred race following the discovery that Sunday’s Hobart Cup had been run almost 40 metres short of the advertised distance.<\/p>\n
In a notice to industry, TasRacing confirmed the starting position barriers for the $250,000 cup were not placed within the intended position within the starting chute.<\/p>\n
The error resulted in the 2,400-metre race being run 37m shorter than advertised, prompting an inquiry by TasRacing and a referral to the Tasmanian Racing Integrity Commissioner.<\/p>\n
The race was won by $31 chance Blonde Star, from Ciaron Maher-trained favourite Ziryab and Peter Luttrell’s Hobart-trained Distrustful Award.<\/p>\n
Only 0.02 lengths separated Blonde Star from Ziryab, and just 0.22 lengths separated Blonde Star from Distrustful Award, which won last year’s Launceston Cup.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TasRacing says the race had been conducted “marginally short” of the stated 2,400-metre distance. (ABC News: Tony King)<\/p>\n
TasRacing said that “no objections were lodged following the running of the Hobart Cup” and that correct weight was also declared, meaning the result of the race would stand.<\/p>\n
But eyebrows were raised on course when Blonde Star passed the post first, on its way to setting a new Elwick track record over 2,400m.<\/p>\n
The trainer of Distrustful Award, Peter Luttrell, said it was “hard to believe” a track record had been set, given the wet conditions and the track’s rating of a soft five.<\/p>\n
“I was in the truck on the way home and I was thinking, ‘How did they run a track record on a track like that?'” he said.<\/p>\n
“Because I had two [runners] in race three and they come back covered in mud and slurry and all the rest of it with the rain we had earlier in the day.”<\/p>\n
‘Surely to Christ they’d have it right’<\/p>\n
Luttrell said the blunder had cost his horse the cup.<\/p>\n
“If it had been run at the true distance, my horse would have finished the race off the best of all of them and the result would have been a lot different,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of difference between first prize money and third prize money, but more than the money, it’s the prestige of winning your hometown cup.<\/p>\n
“Surely to Christ they’d have it right. Biggest race of the day, it’s their big day out, and it’s been spoilt by this controversy.”Possible legal action flagged<\/p>\n
Distrustful Award won the Launceston Cup last year and had been set for a run at the Hobart Cup this year.<\/p>\n
There is a $100,000 bonus on offer for trainers who win the two cups in the same year, an achievement that Luttrell believed was a distinct possibility.<\/p>\n
“I put 12 months’ work into that horse to have him spot on for Sunday, and to have that happen on Sunday is just so disappointing,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The jockey [Chloe Wells] rode him a treat and gave him every chance in my eyes, and it’s no fault of ours we got beat.”<\/p>\n
The Hobart-based trainer said he was now exploring his legal options.<\/p>\n
“Can we sue TasRacing for the difference in the prize money? I don’t know. But I’m not going to just say it’s over and done with and leave it at that.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to see if there’s any recourse. I’m just really disappointed with the whole scenario.”<\/p>\n
In its industry notice, TasRacing said the race had been conducted “marginally short” of the stated 2,400-metre distance.<\/p>\n
It said it would provide a further statement in due course, including “details of steps it will implement to ensure the error does not occur again”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation has been launched into Tasmania’s premier thoroughbred race following the discovery that Sunday’s Hobart Cup had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,240922,240920,240923,240921,240918,153199,240925,240919,85,45838,240924],"class_list":{"0":"post-472298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-blonde-star","11":"tag-chloe-wells","12":"tag-distrustful-award","13":"tag-elwick","14":"tag-hobart-cup","15":"tag-jockey","16":"tag-launceston-cup","17":"tag-peter-lutrell","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-tasracing","20":"tag-ziryab"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}