The sport suffered its second major failure of starting traps in less than a fortnight when the traps got stuck on the track at Sheffield during a race.
The field for the Sheffield Stadium British Bred Stakes heat three were entering the straight for the final time when faced with the 480 metre traps still in position on the track.
People ran on to the track with arms waving and somehow guided the dogs around the traps through the small space between the boxes and the hare rail. Serious injury was thankfully averted.
A similar incident happened at Romford back on February 3.
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Paul Sallis ruled his Klockwork Khaos out of any re-run of the third heat of the British-bred competition declared void last on Tuesday after the starting traps malfunctioned.
There was not enough to power to swing the traps off when a pipe supplying the pressure that operates the boxes was caught up and snapped and disaster was only avoided when racecourse staff moved onto the circuit and slowed down the runners.
However, Sallis’s dog had suffered an injury at the start and, coupled with some minor cuts and bruised he picked up when the hare was stopped, the Monmore trainer decided not to return to the track later in the week.
He said: “I watched the race in the bookies and I wondered what was wrong with the dog. He came out of the boxes sideways then made up some ground and then he stopped again and I couldn’t understand what had happened. However, he had taken a whack as the traps came down as he was leaving them and he finished with a sore back.”
The racing office was in discussion with the other four trainers who had runners in the race and were expecting to make a decision with regard to holding a re-run on Saturday.
