It was set to be one of the big racing weekends of the year but Mother Nature had other ideas.
The deluge on Thursday night, all day Friday and Saturday morning had a significant impact on racing in NSW.
Friday’s Wentworth Park meeting which featured the heats of the Ausure Ultra Sense and the GRNSW Masters was the first casualty with the rain having washed away large parts of the track.
Wentworth Park on Friday.
With constant rain and a dire forecast for the following 24 hours, after deliberation and consultation with the GBOTA, it was decided that the best course of action would be to also abandon the Saturday meeting and move both race meetings back a week, and as a result move the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg Final night back to April 20.
Wentworth Park
Heats of the Ultra Sense and the GRNSW Masters will now be run on Friday April 12, with the four semi-finals of the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg and heats of the Group 1 Farrell’s Association Cup on April 13. The finals of the Group 3 Magic Maiden and the Group 3 Simply Limelight New Sensation will be run as planned on April 13.
The weather also saw the abandonment of the Ladbrokes Gardens Friday meeting when a storm hit as the first event approached, as well as the meetings set down for Muswellbrook and Potts Park on Saturday.
On Saturday once the weather has eased after morning storms, staff at a number of tracks assessed the damage.
Bulli and Gosford were severely hit, again with much of their tracks washed away while at Bulli the facility was also flooded.
Bulli
Bulli
As a result of the flooding, each track needed to be graded, and replacement sand delivered and laid.
With the sand unable to be delivered before Monday, there was no other option but to abandon the Tuesday race meetings on Tuesday at Gosford and Bulli.
Track teams have worked across the weekend and will continue to throughout the week to have all venues back to racing before their next scheduled meeting.
