Gunnedah Jockey Club officials will likely have to wait until at least Wednesday to inspect the track in preparation for the club's biggest social meeting of the year.
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The Riverside Racecourse was evacuated last Friday as floodwaters in and around Gunnedah rose.
The road to the track is still under water meaning Gunnedah Jockey Club secretary manager Lyn Tongue and track staff can't get onto the track until later in the week.
"The SES is telling us we won't get into the track until Wednesday," Tongue said.
"We'll reassess once we can get in there."
The Gunnedah Christmas Hams meeting is one of the biggest days of the year in town with the track generally packed full of punters ready for a good time.
Last year's event was capped at 500 with tickets selling out and the club was hopeful of big numbers again.
"It's the biggest meeting of the year for us. It'd be very disappointing if it doesn't go ahead," Tongue said.
"It all depends on the rainfall. We'll see if there's any more rain this week."
Rain is predicted in Gunnedah for Tuesday, 10-30mm, and Wednesday, 2-15mm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Tamworth is also set to receive rain which will play a role at Tamworth Jockey Club's meeting on Tuesday.
BoM predicts that the country music capital could receive from eight to 20mm of rain on Tuesday.
On Monday morning, the track was drying and had come into the soft range.
"After an inspection of the Tamworth track ahead of tomorrow's [Tuesday] meeting the track is a soft 7," Racing NSW Stewards reported on Twitter.
TJC general manager Michael Buckley said the Tamworth track could handle some more rain as well.
"The weekend was good drying weather and it looks the same today [Monday]. With the forecast of rain tomorrow, I'd be confident that we could cop another 10-20mm and be no dramas for racing," Buckley said.
It will be the first meeting since the track's annual renovation and Buckley said it was "looking fantastic".
There will be eight races at Tamworth's meeting after there was 123 acceptors, including emergencies, declared on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Gunnedah Christmas Hams Race Day meeting attracted a massive 279 nominations on Monday for the seven-race card.
The Christmas Cup (1600m) received 23 nominations but it was the benchmark 58 handicap (1250m) that attracted the most nominations.
There was 53 horses looking to gain a start in that race.
Weights will be declared on Tuesday at 4pm.
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Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
