A big increase in jumpers left the Otago Racing Club between a rock and a hard place for tomorrow's meeting at Wingatui.
After light nominations at Riverton two weeks ago, nominations galore poured in for the meeting, which doubles as the Think Pink Race Day fundraiser for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.
As a result of the nominations, the meeting will now have three hurdle races - two $10,000 maiden hurdles and an $20,000 open hurdle - and an open steeplechase.
''There's been a bit of hot debate over whether we've done the right thing,'' Otago Racing Club chief executive Andre Klein, who is also New Zealand national jump racing manager, said.
''I'm confident we have, but the only reason I say that is that every horse gets a start.
''If we had done it any other way, there would have been horses missing out. With so few jump races and opportunities, that's really not fair.''
Two other options were considered for finding runs for the 18 hurdlers nominated.
The first was to run two restricted open hurdle races for $20,000, splitting the race winners and maidens between the two races, with the first maiden home also getting a $1000 bonus.
The other was to run a $20,000 open race, and a 12-horse maiden for $10,000.
The main problem with the second option was the willingness of North Island jumps riders to come south if they had just one maiden ride, and there would still have been jumps riders missing out on extra rides with the first of the alternatives.
''That's why we think we've done the right thing,'' Klein said.
The jumping numbers are well up on the 11 horses who went around in the two Riverton features on May 17, and Klein was happy to see horse numbers back up in the hurdling department.
''You kind of wonder where those horses were at Riverton, but people have their reasons,'' he said.
''Things go wrong, people might have a different target - it's still quite a long season.
''Revenge is our hurdler and he's running on the flat this week. Everyone's goal is to make it to the Grand National and it's a lot of starts in quick succession to get there.''
The $20,000 Otago Hurdles will have six starters, but it is possible to make a case for all six runners.
Topweight Supercharged is unbeaten at Wingatui from two attempts and can handle a slow9 track, while Needastar's only appearance at Wingatui - at the corresponding meeting last year - also produced a win.
Storm Home was a winner at Riverton, Harry Hill and Faites Vos Jeux have tasted success at Wingatui before, and Cecil's effort two starts back at Riverton was full of merit.
High Forty and Keep It Tight look set to resume their ongoing battle in the $20,000 open steeplechase, although High Forty will carry an extra 1kg as a result of his Riverton win.
