Signs are positive that the rescheduled Omakau thoroughbred meeting will go ahead today.
The meeting was to have been run on Wednesday but a malfunctioning sprinkler caused a section of the Omakau track to become unsafe.
Last night, there was a strong chance the meeting was going ahead, thanks to the affected area of ground on the point of the home turn drying sufficiently with the two-day rescheduling.
"Certainly that area at the 300m mark has improved dramatically," stipendiary steward Mark Davidson said.
Local horses were galloped on the track yesterday morning and there were no problems, Davidson said.
"There were horses that worked around [the track] this morning and there were no issues and we are going to gallop two more horses tomorrow morning," he said yesterday.
After this morning’s testing, a final call will be made on whether the meeting would proceed.
As of the last inspection last night, prospects for the meeting were
looking good", Davidson said.
Rain forced an early end to yesterday’s Thames Jockey Club’s cup meeting.
The races were called off after jockeys reported their mounts had slipped 750m from home in race 2.
Stipendiary steward Alan Coles said drizzly rain set in about 9.30am, and continued.
"We had an inspection and there were a few significant slip marks. Unfortunately for the club and everybody else concerned, the meeting had to be abandoned," he said.
It was the second year in a row the meeting had been halted by rain.
Last year’s meeting was also called off due to track safety concerns.
Yesterday’s abandonment was one more blow for the racing industry in what has been a horror start to 2018.
Waikouaiti’s annual meeting was also called off on Monday after just one race, after several horses slipped on the home turn.
— additional reporting NZN
