Dear Members,

I want to provide you with an update on the current situation regarding the incidents surrounding the Restricted Open and Open events held at the National Finals at Paradise Lagoons. 

In relation to the Restricted Open it was won by an open mare ridden by Mac Shann however it was later brought to our attention that the mare only broke status to Open in May 2026. As you would be aware under Rule Q1 for the National Finals draft all horses must maintain the status they held at the end of the competition year prior to the finals. As a result, Mac was spoken to, and it was established that the mare did finish the competition season as a Novice and as such shouldn’t have been entered into the Restricted Open event. 

Mac was upset and advised that it was an unintentional mistake on his part and returned the prizes so they could be presented to the runner up.  As a result, checks were made into the other nominations in that draft, and it was found that one other place getter and the cut out winner were also not eligible to compete. It was established that there were other nominations in the field that were also found to be ineligible.

The Executive has taken the view that this was an unfortunate set of circumstances that led to these entries being nominated, in particular the length of time between when the finals were supposed to run in April and when they were actually run in June. Due to the number of horses that broke status in that time being much higher than normal, the sheer number of ineligible entries, the fact that there was nothing on the program to indicate or remind competitors of the restriction, and that the matter was quickly corrected it was decided that no further action would be taken. There is also precedence from the National Finals that were held at Kilkivan which were postponed due to flooding and held sometime later. The same issue arose, and no action was taken against these competitors for the same reasons.

In relation to the Open draft, the winner Cameron Webster was drawn at number 23 and Ben Hall was drawn at 21 in the Final. On these draws both competitors received fresh cattle. Due to a combination of factors including systems failure, which are set up to prevent this from happening, Cameron entered the yard at 21 and not 23 and the fact that he was in the yard and not Ben Hall was not discovered until Cameron had completed his run scoring an 87. He quickly returned and advised the Judge that he had made a mistake and run out of turn. After some discussion between the Judge and senior members of the Paradise Lagoons Committee and an ACA councillor, Cameron was advised that his run and his score of 87 would be erased and he would run at number 23. Ben Hall then entered the yard in his correct draw of 21 and was given fresh cattle which established the correct run order for the final. Leanne Comiskey followed on her draw at 22 and then Cameron entered the yard at 23. He scored a 90 putting him in equal lead resulting in a runoff with Kurt Hanrahan for the title which resulted in his winning the event.

Since this incident there has been much discussion and criticism of the decision made at the time to let Cameron run again and query why ACA has not intervened to take the win off him and to overrule or reverse the decision. The judge presiding over this event, is a very well respected and experienced judge, senior Paradise Lagoons committee members and an ACA councillor who were all at the cut out yard made this decision. I would like to point out that this decision was made under trying conditions in a high pressure situation to be fair to everyone involved. The ACA Executive completely supports the decisions made by all parties involved.

There have been suggestions that Rule A10 of the ACA rules was broken thus meaning Cameron should have been scratched/disqualified. The view at the time was that Rule A10 was not breached. The intent of this rule was not to cover this type of incident rather it is in relation to a situation where a competitor has more than one horse in the final and rides them out of turn.

The Rules Committee has since reviewed this and have indicated that they agree that Rule A10 does not apply in this instance and that Rule D10 is more relevant which gives the committee the discretion in these types of matters. The National Finals Committee also support Paradise Lagoons Campdraft Committee in its decision.

I would also point out that the runner up Kurt Hanrahan totally supports the decision made by the committee at the time and does not want any further action taken. Kurt in fact forwarded this statement to ACA which reads:

Good afternoon

I am writing this statement in regards to the incident that occurred at the ACA national finals at paradise lagoons in the Finals of the open on Saturday afternoon. I believe that the committee and judge made the right call and stand by their decisions. Our family was thrilled to have the opportunity to run it off and are proud to have come second. We are also very excited to see Cameron Webster win this prestigious event. The call was made, it has been run and done and we would all like to move on.

Regards

Kurt Hanrahan

I personally would like to commend those that were directly involved in this incident on the level of sportsmanship and integrity that has been displayed in this matter.

Paradise Lagoons Campdraft Committee and ACA released a joint media statement outlining the position taken on the above matters. This is able to be viewed by all members on the ACA Noticeboard and ACA App, which is now available to all members. No comment will be made regarding social media posts.

Robert Daly

President

Australian Campdraft Association