Cheltenham Clerk of the Course Jon Pullin says its too early to know what caused a hole to appear on the hurdles track before the final race on Saturday’s card.
A member of groundstaff could be seen lowering his arm into it and an inspection was called.
As the horses circled in the parade ring, several jockeys returned to the weighing room and Nicky Henderson took Act Of Innocence out.
But after the rails were put in place around the affected area, the race was run, 28 minutes after the official start time and in near darkness.
After all that, there was a photo finish that could barely be seen due to the fading light.
When interviewed by Lydia Hislop on Racing TV Pullin said: “We need to do more exploratory work after today to understand what’s caused it but it’s a single hole, there weren’t any other holes, so we assessed the area, moved off the area of concern and checked that before we carried on.”
When asked if it was a collapsed drain he added:
“It could be but it’s too early to say at this stage, we need to do some further work to understand what caused it.”
The fading light was another consideration before the green light was given.
“We were mindful of that and it didn’t become a consideration until we’d made a decision to carry on and once we had, we assessed what light we had left.
“And once we had we got the rail around the area of concern and were able to get the jockeys out and the horses down to the start in a timely fashion, we were able to stage the race in the light that we had left.”
When asked who had made the decision to stage the race Pullen added: “It’s a collective decision, the enquiry was held with the BHA officials, jockeys, trainers and myself as the racecourse representative. It was a collective decision to carry on.”
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