Chautauqua winning his third T.J. Smith Stakes.

Image: Bradley Photos

By Andrew Eddy

Racing NSW chief steward Marc Van Gestel said the perception of the racing industry will be a significant factor in determining whether Chautauqua will be permitted to race or trial again following a sixth failure to jump from the barriers on Tuesday.

Van Gestel on Wednesday confirmed that NSW stewards have asked connections to provide a submission as to why stewards should not prevent the horse from nominating for trials or races after his latest failure to comply on Tuesday.

He told RSN927's Racing Pulse that if connections wanted to race the horse in the future, it would be up to his panel to determine whether such a move would be in the best interests of racing.

"If they choose to, well then we would require them to make some submissions to us as to why the stewards shouldn't enact the rules and prevent the horse from being nominated from race meetings and trials," Van Gestel said.

"There could be certain things that they haven't tried with the horse," he said. "I am not quite sure whether they took some benefit from yesterday as the horse ultimately did leave the barrier - albeit two furlongs later.

"There are all things that we have an open mind about. We want to provide due process with respect to the horse.

"Obviously, he's a very talented horse and racing would be better if he was back at the races.

"But at the same time, we've got to balance it up with the interests of the industry and the perception of the industry and also people having confidence that if he did return to the races, that he'd jump.

"As we all know, racing is a betting medium and people need to have confidence that horses are going to perform at their best when they come to the races."

This article first appeared on the Racing Victoria website and is reproduced here with their kind permission. For more on Off the Track visit rv.racing.com/news