'There is no question about the distance' - Curragh rejects online accusations

Curragh chief executive Brian Kavanagh has insisted last weekend's Paddy Power Scurry Handicap was run over the correct distance amid suggestions online that it may have been over further than the 6½f advertised on the racecard.

The distance of the Irish Derby, won by Westover last month, has also been questioned, with At The Races' time specialist Simon Rowlands suggesting it could have been run over nearly half a furlong longer if using Google Earth measurements.

Saturday's €100,000 contest, run on good ground, was won by Mr Wagyu in a time of 1min 18.02sec, more than two seconds slower than last year’s race, also run on good ground.

Kavanagh said it was not the distance of the race that caused the slow time.

He said: "There is no question about the distance of the races. The distance is measured before every race meeting with a wheel by the racetrack foreman and clerk of the course, so there's no question about that.

"The time of the race reflects the way in which the race was run. The wind direction and wind speed are among plenty of factors that would have affected the time. The distance of the race is not in question."

Curragh chief executive Brian Kavanagh: insists all races were run over correct distancesCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The middle track was in use for racing at the Curragh last weekend, further away from the grandstands than the Derby track, in use at the track's previous meeting on June 25 and 26.

"We move rails on a daily basis to offer fresh ground for every meeting, so when the rails move, you measure the distances of the track before the meeting," he said.

"We used the middle track last weekend, which is further away than the Derby track. We'll move to the stands' rails for the Phoenix meeting in three weeks' time. You're constantly changing the tracks, but race distances are never an issue.

"It's a part of the team's duty to measure the track with a wheel before every meeting, and that process is carried out for all distances."

The accuracy of race distances in Ireland has been a contentious issue in the past, most notably in the 2019 Her Majesty’s Plate at Down Royal, where it looked as if every runner had broken the track record before the Listed contest was confirmed to have been run over a shorter distance than advertised.

Last month, the Curragh was also criticised when the Coursetrack sectional timing initiative was found to be inaccurate when it was first deployed for an Irish Classic in the Derby.

Coursetrack subsequently pledged to address the technical issues that led to the wrong data being published. The speed-sensing equipment was in operation at the Curragh again last weekend but the times have yet to be published.

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