ARENA MAY FACE PUNISHMENT Lingfield`s owners Arena Leisure face the possibility of a penalty being imposed upon them after the last-minute abandonment of today`s meeting. A report compiled by the stewards` secretary will be sent to the Jockey Club where a decision will be taken as to whether further action is necessary. Tempers were running high at the course this afternoon when the meeting was called off after jockeys arriving for the start of the first race complained the racing surface was unsafe. Jockey Club spokesman John Maxse said: 'With any abandonment a report is sent to Portman Square by the stewards` secretary, who will compile an account of his views and his assessment of the situation. 'The Jockey Club will then consider the report and see whether the circumstances require further investigation and has the option of calling a hearing. 'They will look at the circumstances behind the abandonment and whether everybody has been kept informed of the situation. 'All-weather tracks are faced with staging racing at a time of year when conditions are tough to predict - we will have to look at the report and see whether that was the case here or not.' A precedent does exist for today`s situation when Edward Gillespie was fined Stg. £600 after the late abandonment of a meeting at Cheltenham in December 1995. At a Jockey Club hearing the following month, the managing director of the course attended a Jockey Club disciplinary committee inquiry into his continued announcements that racing would go ahead 'when the condition of the course after an overnight frost was such that racing was still in doubt'. The committee concluded that Gillespie had 'failed to accurately reflect the prospects of racing going ahead, given that the course was unraceable when he inspected at 6am'. Gillespie was fined as he had been the acting clerk of the course for the meeting but the rules have since changed to penalise the courseexecutive instead.
