South Island thoroughbred stables are facing a nervous wait before Friday's Timaru meeting.
The South Canterbury Racing Club has received bumper nominations for the race day, but whether those 100-plus horses get to race is up to the weather gods.
Like most South Island racetracks, the Phar Lap Raceway has been left in a heavily sodden state by the wild weather that hit the South Island last weekend.
The chance of further rain this week could put the meeting in jeopardy.
From 30mm to 50mm of rain is forecast to fall in Timaru from today to Friday, MetService forecaster Cameron Coutts said.
Rain is expected to arrive tonight and a cold southwest change is likely to set in tomorrow.
That may result in heavy showers not due to clear until after Timaru's race meeting has finished on Friday evening, he said.
South Canterbury Racing Club manager Paul Hinsley said the club had a anxious wait on its hands to see what rain the club's track would receive tomorrow.
''Everything is a go. It just really depends on how much rain on Thursday.
''At the moment it is drying out, if we don't get a deluge of rain.''
Racing Integrity Unit officials would be inspecting the track to confirm its suitability for racing, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing operations manager Tim Aldridge said.
The calling off of Timaru's meeting would be a double hit for South Island trainers after the cancellation of Oamaru's July meeting.
The race day was scheduled for Sunday and then rescheduled to today, before being called off because of flooding on the track.
Both the Sean Cameron trained-Lord Sibsford and the Gerald Innes-trained Strolling Vagabond have their Riccarton Winter Cup hopes hanging on the meeting going ahead.
Strolling Vagabond sits 19th, ahead of Lord Sibsford at 20th, in the order of entry for the Winter Cup, so both horses would need to win at Timaru to make the field.
Both horses were entered to race at Oamaru, but missed those opportunities to qualify when the meeting was cancelled.
