Kilmore races called off after steel posts found on track

Police and Racing Victoria are investigating the circumstances that led to Thursday's race meeting at Kilmore being abandoned.

On their routine pre-meeting inspection, stewards discovered two steel posts driven into the track.

The steel posts, about 40cm long, were two metres off the rail near the 400-metre mark, the part of the track most jockeys elect to have their mounts at full speed.

It was described as "vandalism" by stewards and club officials, and the meeting was called off after jockeys and other parties voted overwhelmingly to abandon the fixture. RVL issued a statement saying they were cooperating with police over the incident, which could have led to a fatal accident.

Kilmore Racing Club chief executive Ben Murphy said his club was angry the meeting was called off.

"We’re not angry with the decision that’s been made, what we’re angry with, and really perturbed by, is that someone has taken the time to do what they’ve done to the track [in] what we can only assume is to create chaos.

"Certainly from our perspective it’s a police matter. We take this extremely seriously and we’ll leave no stone unturned to try and find out who has taken it upon themselves to do this today."

Robert Cram, who was in charge of Thursday’s meeting, said: "It’s an immeasurable safety risk which the stewards weren’t prepared to take. We found two stakes and we walked the track twice."

Article courtesy of Fairfax Digital and The Brisbane Times