Media Release - Clairwood Starting Gates

The start of Race 9 at Clairwood on Sunday (15 June 2014) was delayed as a result of an electrical problem which caused current to run through the starting gates, thereby shocking the horses, riders and handlers. The Dennis Bosch trained Your Worship, with MJ Byleveld on board, was the worst affected and had to be scratched.

Following a subsequent inspection of the starting gates it was discovered that a cable linking the start-bell to the gates was damaged between races 8 and 9. After disconnecting the damaged cable a manual start for races 9 and 10 was successfully effected without further incident.



"The fault has now been rectified and no further problems are expected," said Gold Circle Racing Executive Graeme Hawkins. "The starting gates were recently imported from Australia and are of the highest quality. But clearly we were caught off guard by the damaged cable and we apologise unreservedly for the incident which we view in a very serious light," he added.

Hopefully they insulate that piece/section thirty times over...and demand some of their money back from the Australian manufacturer...or was it Made in China....

surely if the gates are all connected a simple circuit alarm can be installed on top of the gates connected to a light or alarm that rings when the gate structure is live? (I am no electrician but my std 7 science would suggest that two wires connected to the metal structure would then send current to the light or alarm if the gates were "live")

Earth Leakage system...?

mr hawaii Wrote:

---

> surely if the gates are all connected a simple
> circuit alarm can be installed on top of the gates
> connected to a light or alarm that rings when the
> gate structure is live? (I am no electrician but
> my std 7 science would suggest that two wires
> connected to the metal structure would then send
> current to the light or alarm if the gates were
> "live")

true