A bogged ambulance at Hawkesbury caused six races to be called off on Thursday on safety grounds.
The ambulance first got stuck on the outside of the rain-soaked track prior to the second race, delaying the start of that event.
It was able to be run with the ambulance following the field as normal, but racing officials weren’t so lucky a short time later when the ambulance became bogged again near the 1700m mark just before the third race.
Horses in the third event were already on the track and had to be sent back to the enclosure.
A plan was then hatched to have the ambulance follow the field around on the woodchip track on the inside of the course proper.
“The ambulance wasn’t going to be able to follow them around on that track either,” deputy chief steward Marc Van Gestel said.
“By that stage the track was a heavy 10 and some riders had expressed some concerns with continuing the meeting.
“When the ambulance wasn’t able to follow the field around we weren’t able to guarantee that the riders would be able to be attended to in the event of an injury, so under those circumstances we had to postpone the meeting.”
Meanwhile, both Canterbury and Warwick Farm, which host meetings on Friday night and Saturday respectively, were rated in the slow range late on Thursday.
“Both are getting to a slow (7) now with the persistent rain that’s around but we haven’t hit the heavy range yet,” said Lindsay Murphy, general manager of racecourses for the Australian Turf Club.
AAP TURF
