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Spring Racing Carnival Caulfield Guineas Day
News Tony McMahon
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Champion West Australian jockey William Pike, tagged “The Wizard of the West”, will bring his skills north-east to Rockhampton as guest rider for the 2021 Rockhampton Winter Racing Carnival.
It was announced on Friday by Rockhampton Jockey Club CEO Tony Fenlon that Pike would be the carnival ambassador and will ride at both feature days, the Newmarket and Cup day.
“We are delighted to announce that William Pike will be the club’s special guest and will be available for race rides on both the Newmarket (Friday, July 9) and the Rocky Cup meeting on Saturday, July 10,” Fenlon said.
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There was no shortage of finger pointing after the races at the big annual Rocky Amateurs Race Day were called off on Saturday in controversial circumstances.
After the races were abandoned following the running of just one event due to a wet patch on the track, the Rockhampton Jockey Club sent out a message to trainers notifying that barrier trials and jump-outs on Monday (May 10) “will proceed as normal.”
That led to Rockhampton’s former premier trainer Tom Button, now based at the Sunshine Coast, to comment on Facebook: “How can it be ok Monday if they called off today..Strange stuff.”
Rockhampton Jockey Club CEO Tony Fenlon. File photo.
News Tony McMahon
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Jockeys were wrongly blamed for the abandonment of six races at Rockhampton’s Callaghan Park racecourse last Saturday when in fact they had “collectively agreed to continue riding”.
Following the running of the first race at 1.07pm, jockeys raised concerns with a section of the track near the 250 metres in the straight relating to a wet patch on the racing surface.
After chief steward Josh Adams consulted with track officials (course curator Trent Williams and RJC CEO Tony Fenlon) and inspected the troublesome section with jockeys, an explanation surfaced.