A BITTER dispute has escalated over the condition of Broadmeadow Racecourse.
The deterioration of the course proper at the track, which is more than 100 years old, has been the centre of debate recently and came to a head on Saturday.
Newcastle Jockey Club chairman Brian Reardon told Wyong trainer Brett Partelle, who had commented on the "poor camber" at Broadmeadow to "take his horses elsewhere".
"If Mr Partelle is not happy with Newcastle then he should take his horses elsewhere. There are plenty of other tracks he can race at," Reardon said.
The experienced chairman of the leading provincial club in Australia approached The Newcastle Herald to make his comments public after hearing how his course had been the centre of attention.
"Unfortunately the problems that Mr Partelle says we have at Newcastle can't be fixed in the short term," Reardon said.
"We have a major plan to upgrade Newcastle and that will be released very shortly, but it is a long-range project that will take time and money.
"I have spoken to plenty of trainers and owners today and Mr Partelle is the only one to voice his disapproval of Newcastle.
"The thing that must be pointed out is that he is criticising a track where he has won two races today and had a couple of placings as well."
Partelle is a strong supporter of Newcastle racing and won the NJC's feature autumn sprint, the group 3 $140,000 Newmarket (1400 metres), on March 17 with Walking Or Dancing.
Last season he had nine winners at Newcastle from 53 runners at a strike rate of of 5.88 and sixth in the race for the Max Lees Medal. He finished in the same position in the Broadmeadow trainers' premiership.
Partelle said after his winning double on the track, where the rail was out five metres, that he could have "gone close to winning four if it was not for the camber on the track".
"When the rail is out at Newcastle the camber really does come into play and horses get on the wrong leg," Partelle said.
"I am very disappointed with the chairman's comments. I am a professional trainer and I am not saying this as a whinge but rather I am trying to do my best by horses, owners and jockeys.
"I feel that something needs to be done here at Newcastle and I am not the only one.
"The great Bart Cummings has been quoted criticising the Newcastle track as has our chief steward here in NSW Ray Murrihy."
Murrihy wrote a report to the NJC after controlling a major meeting at Broadmeadow stating his views that improvement was needed to bring the course proper up to a much better state.
He also had a private meeting with NJC officials to comment on the state of the track.
The board of directors at Newcastle under Reardon's direction have implemented major plans for the upgrade of the course proper at Broadmeadow.
When this was first mooted it was reported the work would cost more than $10 million.
There was talk of upgrading the No.2 grass, which is a training track, to a state where races could be held on this surface at Broadmeadow."
That would allow the course proper to be totally revamped which could take up to a year.
The club could continue its Saturday meetings on the No.2 grass which meant sponsors would not lose their day at the races.
Partelle had seven runners at Broadmeadow on Saturday and scored with the $9 chance Pleasure Or Pain in the in the three-year-old maiden over 900m and the smart Laguna Grande ($3.30 favourite) in the 1400m handicap.
Fully Armed also finished third in the opener and Heeby Hitch Hiker was second in the fifth.
"I stick with my opinion that if the camber of the track was correct I would have gone close to four winners," Partelle said.
"It is frustrating to watch your horses get beat because they were on the wrong leg because of the way the camber here is at Newcastle.
"I was even told by a jockey who finished unplaced on one of my horses that it was on the wrong leg all the way down the straight and just could not improve because of this.
"I was told after I voiced my views that there was a report in the newspaper way back in 1985 saying how bad the camber had become here.
"I am saying this as a way of trying to bring the issue to the notice of people who might try and get things done."
Partelle talked to NJC chief executive officer Maurice Sinclair during the meeting as did Peter Eggleston, who is the president of the Newcastle and Districts Trainers' Association.
Eggleston had sent a letter to the NJC critical of money that is spent on the board of directors room at each meeting.
He also had a letter printed in The Newcastle Herald stating similar concerns when he believed that so much money needed to be spent at Broadmeadow.
Eggleston told Sinclair at the informal meeting of his concerns about the stabling area that trainers and horses worked in each morning at Newcastle. He has also stated that money needed to be spent on the track.
Sinclair said his board of directors spent plenty of time each week with the duties that come with a leading a club that goes unnoticed.
"Each director puts so much into racing at Newcastle and that seems to be forgotten," he said.
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