The 2015 Hawkesbury Gold Cup Day Meeting has been postponed due to concerns about the state of the track.
UPDATE: The Group 3 Darley Crown and the Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas have been added to the Rosehill meeting on Saturday 9th May 2015, while the Hawkesbury Cup has been transferred to an Open Handicap 1600 at Warwick Farm on Wednesday 6th May 2015. The acceptors for all three races have reverted back to nomination stage and additional nominations can be accepted until Monday morning, 4th May.
The Hawkesbury Gold Cup, won by Leebaz in 2014, has been abandoned and is unlikely to be held in 2015. Photo by: Steve Hart
Hawkesbury was hit by plenty of rain overnight and the track was originally rated as a heavy nine, but a number of jockeys complained about the track at the conclusion of the opening race of the day and jockey Christian Reith alleged that his mount Proper Madam broke down after stepping in a hole during the race.
All the jockeys set to ride on the meeting walked the track with the stewards at the conclusion of the first race and Racing New South Wales stewards made the call to postpone the rest of the meeting after more rain hit the very wet track.
Racing New South Wales Deputy Chairman Of Operations Marc Van Gestel said that after looking at the track that there was no way that the meeting could continue safely due to the holes developing in the track.
“We have had the opportunity to look at the track between the 400 metres and the 900 metres,” Van Gestel said.
“That is primarily where the concern was and there is a number of holes that are starting to develop there.
“With the rain we had this morning, which was an additional 11 mills, a number of riders are expressing concern with respect to the footing that has been attributed to their horses.
“At this stage we are not prepared to continue on and it doesn’t appear that is going to be safe to race, so we have made the decision to postpone the race.”
Van Gestel was hopeful that the rest of the meeting would be able to be postponed to a later date like the opening day of The Championships was last month, but Hawkesbury Race Club CEO Brian Fletcher does not believe that the track would be fit to race on either tomorrow or Monday and he is of the opinion that the meeting will now be abandoned.
“I have not had a good look at it yet and we will have to talk to Racing NSW, but wherever you put it now it is only going to get in the road of something else”, Fletcher said.
“The horses are going to go to Brisbane, so it just loses all the quality.
“I think there is no alternative and that it will have to be abandoned.”
