HUNTER and North West Racing Association chief steward Shane Cullen made the official call everyone had feared when rain arrived in Tamworth early Sunday morning, for one of the few times this year.
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After three races, the eight-race TAB meeting was abandoned.
What had been a Furneys Fun Day meeting became a damp downer for the Tamworth Jockey Club and the many owners, trainers, jockeys and patrons who had turned up for the big day.
The decision to abandon the meeting left many people scratching their heads. Because how could this happen during such a bad drought? The ambulance even became bogged!
Cullen explained the meeting was abandoned after four sections of the track became unsafe.
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Initially, a section of track near the 1600m was deemed unsafe. And the original intention was to change the 1600 metre race to a 1400m race, with owners in that race given the option to scratch their horse.
There was also a visibility issue at that stage due to the rain, which then stopped.
Then it became apparent there were three more sections of the track, at the 800m, 700m and 600m, that were unsafe.
“There were 40m sections that were patchy,” Cullen said.
“While there was just 12 millimetres of rain recorded here, what rain we had got through the surface broken up by the hooves. But with the clay base, the water started to come back up and pool in those hooves.”
He said once the track “opened up, the water wasn’t going away” and the track became “slippery”.
TJC general manager Kay Jeffrey said “it was one of those things”.
“[You] can’t be too upset, we needed the rain,” she said.
“[It was] great to get a little bit of rain. It’s so dry here at the moment.
“Moving forward, though, we’d like to improve our track for incidents like today [Sunday]. We had a great crowd too, the markets were a great success.”
In race one, Mystic Splendour could be chasing a Showcase win on her home track next month after snaring her maiden victory. She beat Sunday Special and Keeva.
Little Al won race two, with Le Faberge and Louisiana Man second and third.
The Michelle Fleming-trained Akeelah won race three from Craig’s My Boy and Mikuro.
