Australian Turf Club officials are hopeful that Rosehill Gardens will go ahead on Saturday after missing the worst of the big wet that has engulfed most of southern New South Wales and Victoria.
The Rosehill track only received 26mm of rain overnight and has been posted a heavy 8 on Thursday afternoon.
Several other venues across New South Wales and Victoria have not been as lucky with cancellations due to the persistent rain.
The Sapphire Coast meeting set down for Friday has been cancelled due to the heavy rain after a track inspection on Thursday by South East Racing Association chairman of Stewards Craig Yeo and Sapphire Turf Club officials.
And the torrential rain has forced Saturday’s Kembla Grange meeting to be transferred to Gosford.
Racing New South Wales stewards inspected Kembla Grange Thursday afternoon and made the decision to transfer the meeting.
The Gosford Race Club has offered free entry for Saturday and Gosford Racing Club chief executive James Heddo was quick to respond to the needs of owners and trainers.
“Gosford Race Club is pleased to be able to host this meeting at short notice, which will cater for a large pool of horses that would otherwise have been forced to remain at home in their stables,” Heddo said.
“In these tough economic times, we all realise the importance of giving owners an opportunity to race their horses for a chance to earn prizemoney.”
“Gosford Race Club recognises the initiative of Racing NSW and Illawarra Turf Club in acting quickly to ensure these industry benefits.”
A decision on whether the Albury meeting set down for Sunday will go ahead will be made on Saturday.
Meanwhile the Victorian country meetings of Sale and Wangaratta have been abandoned.
Sale has lost is Saturday seven race program after receiving 45mm of rain Wednesday night and Thursday morning while Wangaratta has lost its Cup meeting on Sunday after more than 100mm of rain over the same period.
Racing Victoria chief operating officer Bernard Saundry said the heavy rain this week has not only put race meetings in doubt but has restricted the transfer of meetings to other venues.
“We do not have a suitable venue in the state’s south-east to which we can transfer tomorrow’s Sale meeting and thus we have had to abandon it,” Saundry said.
“The tracks in that part of the state are either too wet, undergoing standard autumn renovations, already hosting meetings in the coming days or, in the case of Cranbourne and Stony Creek, preparing for major meetings over the Labour Day long weekend.”
The wet conditions have already put pressure on next week’s meetings with nominations for Sandown next Wednesday and Ballarat Thursday being extended until 10am (AEDT) on Friday.
