Favourable Forecast Helps Randwick Track
- Wednesday, 22 April 2015 08:23
The Australian Turf Club is counting on an improved weather forecast to ensure its Anzac Day meeting at Randwick isn't lost from the racing calendar.
As the worst storm to hit NSW in a decade eased on Wednesday afternoon, officials were confident Randwick would be safe for racing on Saturday.
Randwick received 74mm of overnight rain to take its total for the week to 180mm, most of it falling since early Monday morning.
The Australian Turf Club's Lindsay Murphy
And while there is next to no chance of racing on a surface other than the heaviest possible, the ATC's track spokesman Lindsay Murphy said only an incorrect weather forecast would put the meeting in jeopardy.
"There's no doubt about the meeting going ahead, not unless we get another heap (of rain) tonight which isn't forecast," he said.
The meeting will be the fourth held on the Randwick course proper in 19 days after it was moved from the ailing Kensington racetrack.
The ATC's inner track has been out of commission since November and already two other fixtures have been moved, including the Queen's Birthday public holiday meeting on June 8.
In a bid to negate the effects of obvious wear and tear on the Randwick course proper, Saturday's rail will be moved to the 12m position.
"It's all fresh ground they will be racing on and that will help the track cope much better," Murphy said.
Chief steward Ray Murrihy said there were obvious advantages in pushing the rail out, even if the track wasn't rain-affected.
"It will present a new surface ... I don't know if horses have ever really galloped on it (that far out)," he said.
"There will be a little bit of residual wear in the straight but it's well spread out."
Field sizes have been capped at 12 horses but only two of the eight races needed emergencies at acceptance time.
The pattern of racing on Saturday is expected to favour horses finishing down the outside rail.
