The fallout is still going on from what can best be described as a farce at Ballarat last Saturday night.
For those of you who missed Monday morning's report from Michael Guerin, the guts of the matter is that the group 1 Ballarat Cup ended up with only four runners.
Why? Because the stewards decided to clamp down on sulkies that were wider than the allowed width of 1.3m.
Fair enough, you might say. Supposedly the measuring began at meetings in Victoria on Thursday but trainer Emma Stewart - who scratched four of her runners from the Ballarat Cup including the well-backed Philadelphia Man and Guaranteed - reckons she was using the same sulkies on some horses on Thursday and Friday night and there were no problems.
If the sulkies are illegal, fine - action has to be taken.
Firstly, Harness Racing Australia (which passed on its concerns about illegal sulkies to Harness Racing Victoria) needs to be asking the manufacturers of the UFO sulkies why they are making sulkies that are 5cm wider than the allowed limit.
But secondly, the communication lines from Harness Racing Victoria stewards to trainers and drivers were a disgrace.
Rather than trying to adopt the ''ha, ha, we caught you'' approach, the word should have been going out on the Wednesday to the industry letting people know there was going to be a clampdown on the sulkies.
Some might argue it's like the police telling robbers that they'll be stationed outside a bank so don't bother staging a hold-up there, but if trainers could have turned up with two sulkies - or even had a day or two to see if their horse could pace smoothly in a slightly thinner sulky - it would have been a better outcome than what happened on Saturday night.
Who were the biggest losers in this whole shambles? The Ballarat club - which by all accounts is one of the more progressive clubs in Victoria - and the owners of those horses who missed out on their chance to get some good cash last weekend.
Holidays do matter
Before some of you out there (yes, I'm looking at you, Steven Anderton) start thinking I'm off on holiday again, there's no chance of that at this time of year.
However, with the busy racing season over the next week, and the way the meetings fall in this holiday period, Racing Matters will be back on January 9.
Lazy Fiver
If the Lazy Fiver was a horse, it would be close to being given away as a riding hack, as Conroy finished last at Awapuni last Saturday.
I'm having one last dab at picking a horse that's going to pay around $10-$12 for the win, before aiming a little skinnier next season.
So let's go out with a bang and try Motorboat Mike in the Tapanui Cup (race 7) at Gore on Sunday, given his great course and distance statistics.
