MAREEBA MEETING SHIFTED

A DRENCHED patch around the home turn at Mareeba Turf Club forced the abandonment of yesterday’s Boxing Day races, with the non-TAB meeting shifted to this Saturday.

Queensland Racing Integrity Commission stewards inspected the track early on Wednesday morning and made the call around 7am to postpone the five races.

Racing Queensland said the weather and the state of track were the concerns held by stewards.

“The Mareeba racecourse has recorded 40mm of rainfall over the past two days making the track unsuitable for racing on Wednesday,” RQ said in a statement.

Mareeba club president Cyril Vains walked the track with QRIC stewards and said it was in no state to race.

“The concerns were between the 300m and 600m of the track,” Vains said.

“The stewards, myself and the secretary of the club were there this morning to inspect the track.

“It has not stopped raining since we did the inspection.”

The heavy rain that saturated the Far North over Christmas is set to continue until the New Year, with Vains unsure the meeting will be able to run on Saturday, but he is hopeful.

Showers are expected every day until next week.

“The weather forecast is not looking too good for the rest of the week,” Vains said.

“If rain does continue this week and we miss Saturday, there would be a chance to get another suitable time, we will just need to find the right date when no one else is racing.

“There are a few dates later in the next four or five weeks that we could look at if we need too.”

Yesterday’s meeting will be moved to this Saturday at the track with scratchings from the original nominations reinstated in the races, with the same times set for Saturday as they would have run on Wednesday, starting at 1.10pm.