Carousel on 'hold' during pandemic

Restrictions during the COVID pandemic and the return of regionalised harness racing has forced Club Menangle to postpone the running of one of its premier feature events, the Carousel.

Originally programmed to run heats worth $14,000 on September 4 and 11 at Menangle, the $50,000 final was scheduled to be run at Tabcorp Park Menangle on September 18.

With regionalised racing restricting country trainers to their districts from today [Wednesday], the No 1 club had little alternative and decided that postponing the Carousel was the only fair way forward.

“Quite simply, country trainers would have been denied the opportunity to contest an event that many had aimed their horses for, as it’s a race that carries a lot of tradition and is one they would all love a shot at winning,” said Club Menangle’s General Manager of Racing, David Wonson.

“Things are changing all the time, but at the moment the club will look for an alternate date; hopefully that will be in October.

“If we were to run the race then obviously, we would require current circumstances to change to make it possible for country trainers to participate at metropolitan meetings.

“Naturally we want this race to be an even playing field for all our trainers and we’ll run the Carousel when that is the case.”

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION TELEPHONE CLUB MENANGLE’S GENERAL MANAGER OF RACING DAVID WONSON ON 0438-398-251.