Today’s Mornington meeting has been abandoned after race four due to the weather and track conditions.
Wednesday’s metropolitan meeting at Mornington had to be abandoned after race four due to poor visibility because of persistent rain.
With three of the seven races still to be run at the Melbourne Racing Club meeting, stewards called a halt after conferring with jockeys.
“We’re not satisfied that the visibility is up to standard,” Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey said.
The track was downgraded from a slow (7) to a heavy (8) at 11.22am (AEST) and to a heavy (9) at 2.16pm after race three.
“The jockeys were prepared to give it a go in the 1000-metre race (four) after the long races which might not have been as bad but some of them were saying they went 60 yards (metres) and couldn’t see,” Bailey said.
“They had a legitimate reason and we weren’t comfortable with the visibility ourselves.
“We didn’t force them to go to a vote. The stewards were satisfied that the visibility wasn’t up to standard.”
During the meeting the stewards’ car got bogged on the sand track near the 1000m.
Minutes later stewards called off the Mornington meeting while other stewards were inspecting the track at Sale where Thursday’s meeting was to be held and due to the state of the track it was transferred to Ballarat.
The win of Star Salute in the Progress Signs Hcp (1016m) was a pleasant surprise for leading trainer Peter Moody who was unsure how the filly would handle the heavy going.
“I really had no idea about her in the ground and, after I finished `potting’ her to the owners and saying I’m not sure if she’ll handle the wet and I didn’t think she’s improved off her last prep, she comes out and does that,” Moody said.
“But I’m very happy to be wrong. She’s just an honest little trier and I think it’s a great advantage to know now that she can handle the soft.
“I haven’t seen a lot of improvement off the back of her last prep, but she’s very honest, very competitive and being able to handle soft will add another string to her bow.”
The three-year-old General Nediym filly, a $100,000 yearling purchase, has won three of her four starts and is part-owned by the Moody Racing Star Syndicate along with several stable clients.
Easy in the betting at $6.50 Star Salute, ridden by Jason Benbow, took the shortest way home on the inside to score by 1-1/4 lengths from Total Liberty ($9) with Alittlevolcanic ($5.50) 1-1/2 lengths away third.
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