In what may be a first, three horses were scratched on Sunday by trainer Bryce Stanaway over a disagreement about sandwiches.
Horses can be scratched for any number of reasons – vets advice, the track copping torrential rainfall, a better opportunity in a coming race, and myriad of others.
Racing.com and RacingPost report that Stanaway was refused a sandwich from the owners and trainer’s room.
An argument erupted and stewards reported that Stanaway requested his three horses be scratched. Stewards accepted his request. It is not clear if stewards were aware of the sandwich incident.
Stanaway told RSN Radio his side of the story this morning:
“I went into the trainers’ room, not the winner’s room, and was expecting to have a coffee and a sandwich and a bit of relaxation before I had to go and saddle the next three.
“There’s a woman there bringing out one plate of sandwiches to about 50 people and like vultures, all of the sandwiches were gone.
“I went politely – which is quite a shock for me that I’m actually starting to mellow out – and saw the CEO and I said, ‘for a trainer, there’s nothing left up there’ and all this.
“I’ve got witnesses, he went off his head at me and said, ‘scratch your horses and go home’. He actually told me to scratch my horses and go home.
“The final straw was the attitude of the CEO and the way he treated me. He did it in front of (jockey) Brian Higgins, a girl that works for me and two of my owners and he’s the one that asked me to scratch my horses and go home.”
Stanaway’s horses Entirely Perfect and Trinidadian scratched from race eight, with Traveling Wilbury scratched from race nine.
Stanaway had Black Soul and Bardell compete in race four, both unplaced.
In terms of owners and connections, Stanaway was listed as the first owner in all three scratched horses.
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