Efforts to reschedule Saturday’s Warwick Farm races have failed and the meeting has officially been abandoned.
Heavy rain throughout the week and again overnight left surface water on the track making it unfit for racing.
Officials from the Australian Turf Club and Racing NSW contacted all trainers with runners to canvass whether they would start their horses if the meeting was run on Monday.
However many trainers would not commit with the likelihood the surface would still be in the slow to heavy range despite clearing weather.
ATC chief executive Darren Pearce said the club would now focus on programming amendments so progressive horses engaged at Warwick Farm would have alternatives to take them into the Sydney autumn carnival.
“We have made some changes to the program for the Expressway Stakes meeting next Saturday and will be prepared to divide upcoming races if sufficient acceptances are received to help the industry overcome today’s abandonment,” Pearce said.
“We certainly need the weather to improve to get things back on target.”
Nominations for Wednesday’s ATC Hawkesbury meeting have been reopened for horses that were due to race at Warwick Farm and close at 4pm Sunday.
The two-year-old race at Rosehill on Saturday has been reduced from 1200 to 1100 metres and the Benchmark 90 has been replaced by a 1500m open handicap.
Sydney has been reduced to three tracks with major construction work at Randwick.
Canterbury had races on Friday night and Rosehill is the venue for next Saturday, meaning neither could be used to stage the Warwick Farm fixture.
Pearce said Warwick Farm was the only one of Sydney’s racetracks that had not had an upgrade to its facilities in recent times.
“It is the only track in Sydney that hasn’t been rebuilt with modern drainage,” Pearce said.
“We are working very hard to raise the funds to rebuild the track.”
AAP TURF
