THE region's recent rainfall has put a dampner on the Gunnedah Jockey Club's annual Somerton Cup meeting.
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Monday's meeting was abandoned after the track was deemed unsafe due to more than 50mm of rain falling at the track on Friday night.
Gunnedah Jockey Club president Kevin Edmunds said while the rain was welcome "the timing was not quite right".
"If the meeting was held on Tuesday or if it had rained on Thursday instead of Friday, we would have been right," Edmunds told the Leader.
"As it happens though, the track was deemed unsafe after a the trial gallop on Monday morning."
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While majority of the track had sufficiently dried before the trial gallop, part of the track remained too wet to race.
"There was a pretty wet patch just around the 600 metre mark," Edmunds said.
"Obviously the call to abandon the meeting is the right one because we want to make sure everyone is safe.
"However, it is a shame because the rest of the track is in tip-top shape.
"We had stopped watering it about nine days ago after we had heard there was rain coming.
"In the end though, there just wasn't enough time to dry out the track completely."
Edmunds said it was unlikely the Somerton Cup meeting would be rescheduled.
"From what I understand, the meeting has just been abandoned and we have lost it," he said.
"It is unfortunate, but the rain is most welcome it was just the timing of it."
The club will now turn its attentions to hosting the Gunnedah Cup meeting on May 19.
"Hopefully that meeting should be a real cracker," Edmunds said.
"We are really looking forward to it and I know the track should be in great shape for it."