The Thirsk chief executive responsible for providing going readings at the track, was referred to a BHA disciplinary panel after he told a podcast he had amended results before publication
A clerk of the course who admitted amending a GoingStick reading before making it public has been fined £500. James Sanderson, who is also chief executive at Thirsk in Yorkshire, is responsible for providing details of the ground conditions ahead of and on the day of racing, which is vital information for trainers and jockeys as well as punters.
Clerks are required to use a GoingStick, which has been mandatory since 2007, to measure the firmness of the ground and provide a reading which measures from 0 to 15, 15 being the firmest. Most results range from between 5 and 10.
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In April Sanderson was asked to explain his approach by the Barstewards Enquiry podcast, which was also sponsoring at the track, when he admitted he didn’t trust the implement and had knocked a point off the track’s GoingStick reading for the April 12 meeting.
He said: “My GoingStick this morning, 8.6, and my Goingstick for declarations, 8.9. If I put 8.9, I’d get a lot of non-runners and I’d get a lot of punters saying, ‘That’s not good, that’s bloody firm. You’re a nutter.’
“I published the reading. Do you know what I’ve done? I’ve taken one whole point off it to put it where people can interpret it better. The reason I’ve done that is because I think the actual reading, going off a stick that’s just been serviced, is misleading. That is why I don’t like the GoingStick.”
Sanderson pleaded guilty to breaching the rules which state that ‘a person must not provide any inaccurate information to the BHA’ at an independent disciplinary inquiry held under the fast track system
The hearing established that the clerk had only used the stick to a ‘limited extent’, attended no refresher training sessions and declined on-site training.
Sanderson confirmed the substance of his comments to the podcast and admitted that until the start of the year, he would often not enter a GoingStick reading.
He explained that the readings he was getting “did not correlate with what the actual ground was and how it would ride…and therefore I regarded them as unhelpful…inaccurate/unhelpful. And therefore I would choose not to put them in”.
Panel chair Philippa Charles said Sanderson’s “reluctance to use it (or to report its data faithfully) has led to a situation in which there is no reliable GoingStick data record for Thirsk”.
“Despite Mr Sanderson’s apparent concern about the accuracy of the GoingStick system, it is nevertheless the case that it is a requirement of BHAGI that it be used, and a requirement of the Rules that the data generated by it is returned faithfully to the BHA.”
In future he will be expected to use, and report data from, the GoingStick system in order not to be in further breach of the rules.
