Racing Victoria Limited (RVL) has gone into damage control after stones were found on the ThoroughTrack forcing the abandonment of Wednesday's race meeting at Geelong.Jockeys were alerted to the stones by track staff and after inspecting the synthetic track before the first race they refused to ride for safety reasons.Allan Reardon, who chaired Wednesday's stewards panel and passed the track suitable for racing only the day before, declined to comment as irate jockeys and trainers voiced their f

Racing Victoria Limited (RVL) has gone into damage control after stones were found on the ThoroughTrack forcing the abandonment of Wednesday's race meeting at Geelong.

Jockeys were alerted to the stones by track staff and after inspecting the synthetic track before the first race they refused to ride for safety reasons.

Allan Reardon, who chaired Wednesday's stewards panel and passed the track suitable for racing only the day before, declined to comment as irate jockeys and trainers voiced their frustration about the state of the track.

Caulfield trainer Heath Conners described the track condition as disgusting.

"It's a synthetic track. It is not made of stone," Conners said.

"I went out and walked the track and there are rocks as big as your thumb."

Golden Slipper Stakes-winning jockey Brad Rawiller said he feared for both horse and jockey safety after looking at the track.

"I just can't believe what it is like," Rawiller said.

"I haven't seen anything like it."

On Tuesday, Reardon and fellow steward Bruce McGinley watched 12 horses trial in two jumpouts on the track and while noting the presence of stones were satisfied that the track would be safe for racing.

Dean Yendall, who was not riding at Wednesday's Geelong meeting, was the only jockey at the trials.

Additional harrowing of the track following the trials exposed more stones.

The Geelong ThoroughTrack has been closed for drainage work for nearly a month and the last meeting held on the track was on October 7.

Geelong Racing Club chief executive Paul Carroll said he was disappointed that the meeting was abandoned.

He said it reflected badly on the club but the club had kept RVL fully informed on the works taking place by the RVL-appointed contractor.

Jamie Mott was the first jockey alerted to the stones and expressed his disappointment that stewards had not told jockeys.

"Goggles don't protect you from rocks," Mott said.

Geelong trainer Jamie Edwards said there was insufficient time to prepare the track properly for a race meeting after the completion of the drainage work.

"This meeting should have been transferred and given two weeks of trackwork and trials and then there wouldn't have been a problem," Edwards said.

"It is a disgrace and the problem that we face is that all the acceptances are closed and we can't put our horse in anywhere for a week."

RVL chief executive Rob Hines defended the track which he admitted had been contaminated by stones from the drainage work and regrading of the track.

"This is a normal by-product of this type of work," Hines said.

"On reflection, we did not allow ourselves enough time to prepare the track for this meeting so in the interests of horse and jockey safety it was necessary to abandon the meeting," Hines said.

"I apologise to everyone who was inconvenienced."

Hines said he was confident all the stones would be removed from the track manually before trials, using senior jockeys, are held on the ThoroughTrack on Friday week.

Friday week's scheduled meeting for Geelong has been transferred to Bendigo and a decision on whether the meeting set down for April 24 proceeds will be made after next week's trials.

"This not really an issue related to the future of the synthetic track," Hines said.

"The drainage work we did has broken up the base underneath the synthetic track and the harrowing and replacement of the track has mixed those stones into the track.

"We have just got to clean all the rubble and stones out of the track and a team of people are walking the track, raking the track, and picking the stones out.

"It is just a manual job that is going to take a few days but it will happen."