THE new chief executive of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has called a meeting next Tuesday afternoon at Galway with representatives for racehorse owners, trainers and stable staff over the incident at Kilbeggan Racecourse last Friday week which saw racing delayed for 22 minutes.

At that fixture, stable staff refused to bring their horses from the stableyard in the centre of the course to the parade ring for the third race until the racecourse management provided free bottles of drinking water for stable staff.

The Kilbeggan stables are approximately four furlongs from the parade ring and, on what was an unusually warm evening, stable staff felt the racecourse should have done more to cater for those working with horses.

Bernard Caldwell, chairman of the Irish Stablestaff Association, told The Irish Field: “I got word at 4.30pm that there was no bottled water being provided at the racecourse stables. We had a major row with Kilbeggan over this last year and we told them what would happen if there was a repeat of that situation.

“Paddy Dunican [Kilbeggan manager] told us that bottles of water could be purchased from the grooms’ canteen at a subsidised rate of €1.50. That was unacceptable. Every other racecourse can provide free bottles of water for stable staff.”

As the first race (5.30pm) neared, Caldwell contacted a stewards’ secretary on duty at Kilbeggan to inform him of the situation and the intention of stable staff to protest. The Irish Field understands that unofficial talks between racing officials and racecourse management took place, but no resolution was agreed.

Caldwell said: “After the second race we could see nothing was been done, so I asked all the grooms not to take their horses up for the third race. We all stood together and, after 20 minutes, the IHRB head of security phoned me to say water was on the way down.”

The delay to racing was not mentioned in the stewards’ report on the day as no official enquiry on the matter took place. However, a spokesperson for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board confirmed that the incident was covered in a report filed by the chairman of the acting stewards and is being considered by the new CEO, Daragh O’Loughlin.

On Thursday, O’Loughlin – who only took up his post three weeks ago - contacted the relevant industry associations to convene next Tuesday’s meeting which aims “to ensure there is no reoccurrence” of the Kilbeggan incident.

Asked for a comment on Thursday evening, Paddy Dunican said: “I welcome the IHRB intervention. I hope the true facts will be established and those responsible punished.”

He said a catering staff member working in the stableyard canteen last Friday “received a lot of abuse from some stable staff”. According to Dunican, only two stable staff availed of the €5 hot meal and soft drink offer last Friday, and only four did so at the previous meeting. He said Kilbeggan Racecourse is compliant with all regulations under the Health and Safety Act. And he claimed “an enormous amount of resources” are going into watering the track at Kilbeggan and ensuring a safe racing surface.

Earlier in the week Kilbeggan Racecourse issued a statement which described the protest as “an official strike by the stable staff with the backing of the trainers (their employers) and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, because they wanted free bottles of water (mains water available free).

“The members of the Kilbeggan Race Committee work voluntarily to provide the vital underlying infrastructure free to the racing industry.

“We would expect that any association that has an issue with a service on our racecourse would raise the issue in advance of our race meeting, rather than threating the paying public and members of the industry.”

The Association of Irish Racecourses described the protest as “unacceptable” in a letter to Caldwell this week. Referring to the implications for the racecourses “and all the other sectors involved in our industry” if racing had been cancelled, AIR asked Caldwell for an assurance “that there will be no repeat of the action that took place at Kilbeggan last Friday.”

Caldwell was in no mood to back down this week. Saying he has had nothing but support from the public, stable staff and trainers this week, he believes Paddy Dunican should resign over his handling of the matter.

“We have had problems with Kilbeggan for a long time and that has been exposed now. Stable staff are on low wages and getting staff to stay in racing is hard. Racecourses get a fair whack of money and those that don’t share it fairly should be called out. Every other track provides free drinking water. Paddy Dunican should resign if this is his idea of how to treat people.”