Officials will wait until race morning before deciding if Wednesday’s meeting at Canterbury will go ahead.
As cyclonic conditions continued to lash Sydney, Australian Turf Club officials made two inspections of Canterbury on Tuesday.
Canterbury received almost 120mm of rain in the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday to put the track well into the heavy range.
But Racing NSW steward Greg Rudolph, speaking after a 3pm inspection, said Canterbury had missed the deluge which had hit most of the city throughout the day.
“The track had 10 more (millimetres of rain) since nine o’clock this morning which is less than a lot of other parts of Sydney,” he said.
The surface remained at a heavy 9 rating but Rudolph said the forecast wasn’t promising.
“At the moment the ATC is saying the track is OK to race on, depending on what the night brings,” he said.
“But the weather bureau has tipped a pretty bad night.”
Stewards will inspect the track at 6am on Wednesday.
Canterbury is rated the best wet-weather racetrack among the five used in the Sydney metropolitan area.
There has been no racing at the inner-city venue since February 20.
The track has been out of action while it has been home to the overseas horses racing during the Sydney autumn carnival.
It was used as quarantine station to stable English stayer Red Cadeaux, Hong Kong’s Dominant as well as four horses from Japan.
Officials cleared the racetrack for a return to midweek racing when the last of the visiting horses, Dominant, left for Hong Kong on Monday.
If there is racing on Wednesday, bookmakers expect Chris Waller and Gai Waterhouse to figure prominently the meeting.
Miss Royale and Now’s The Time are clear-cut favourites for Waller while the Waterhouse-trained Najoom is a strong fancy to extend a winning sequence.
Northern Solstice, a French import for Waterhouse having his first Australian start, and the Waller-trained Loophole are sharing favouritism in the Schweppes Handicap.
