Canterbury showed why it is considered the best racing surface in Sydney, withstanding the big wet to host seven races on Wednesday.
While several other meetings have been abandoned or moved, Canterbury went ahead with a heavy nine rating despite being hit with 129mm of rain since Saturday.
Top jockey Nash Rawiller doubted any other surface in Sydney would have been fit for racing.
“I don’t think they’d be racing anywhere else in the metropolitan or provincial area,” Rawiller said.
Steward Marc van Gestel was surprised at how well Canterbury coped with the rain.
“Before we got rain halfway through the day we were looking at going to a heavy eight (rating),” he said.
The meeting gave Chris Waller an opportunity to again give chase to the Sydney training record, although he was unable to make any headway with his best result a couple of minor placings.
Waller needs three more winners to eclipse the training record of 156 winners in a season held by TJ Smith and his daughter Gai Waterhouse.
Despite the waterlogged conditions there was some talent on show.
Boss Lane revelled in the wet to score a runaway five-length win in the second race and trainer Ron Quinton doesn’t expect it to be his last.
“This horse will be a nice three-year-old. He will make a nice sprinter hopefully,” Quinton said.
Boss Lane’s victory also gave Quinton pause for thought as he was picked out by the late David Lamond, a long-time stable client and friend of Quinton’s who died in February.
The youngster is by Darley stallion Dubawi who also produced filly Arabian Gold, a smart winner of the Canterbury Park Handicap (1250m).
She is raced by Nick Moraitis and was trainer David Vandyke’s first winner for the prolific owner.
“She’s out of a mare Nick raced himself and I know he’s had a big opinion of this filly so it’s fantastic she’s won for him,” Vandyke said.
“I didn’t know if she’d handle the track and it had been a month between runs so I thought she was vulnerable but she dug deep and kept finding.”
The meeting wasn’t as good for jockeys Kerrin McEvoy and Nathan Berry who were suspended for two and four meetings respectively for careless riding.
