Above: Sandown Cup race favourite Flashing Floods was calm before the $86,000 Group 1 event, but never got the chance to strut his stuff after the starting boxes were opened prematurely. By Glen Atwell
THE $86,000 Group 1 Sandown Cup has been cancelled after the starting boxes were inadvertently opened moments before the race last Thursday night, 17 May.
As the final two greyhounds were being loaded into their boxes, trainer Don Hazzard accidentally triggered the manual release lever, sending the field on its 715-metre journey.
With no lure in sight, the field aimlessly galloped 350 metres around the track to the catching pen, where handlers quickly caught the mystified greyhounds.
Confusion reigned on and off the track as punters, trainers and even racecallers struggled to make sense of what happened.
Radio Sport 927 caller Rob Testa thought he had missed the start of the race.
“It’s a caller’s worst nightmare to look up and see the field half-way around the track,” he said.
Stewards quickly reviewed footage of the start of the race and concluded that after Hazzard had loaded his runner Sky Hazzard into box four, he unintentionally activated the manual start lever.
Talk of restarting the race was quashed by Sandown Greyhounds racing operations manager Michael Floyd immediately after the debacle.
“The field ran too far to consider restarting the race tonight,” he said. “And the process would have involved having all the entrants checked by the vet.”
A subsequent investigation by Greyhound Racing Victoria (GRV) concluded that the event be abandoned, all monies wagered be refunded and prize money be evenly distributed among the eight entrants.
GRV also issued Hazzard with a reprimand and reminded him of his responsibilities to show more care in future.
Bookmaker Michael Harrak said it was disappointing that a manual release lever could cause such drama.
“It’s something you don’t see very often, but I can’t quite work out how it could happen,” he said.
“If it’s that easy to do, then it will happen again.
“For the punters it was a bit of a disappointment that the main race was not run.”
