Ellerslie set for Thursday thriller
Seven race card includes Auckland Cup and Bonecrusher Stakes
The best racing news for a week is that the weather for Ellerslie’s newly established Thursday twilight meeting will be fine and dry. Remember that? “It looks like being brilliant,” says Auckland Racing Club CEO Cameron George.
The sense of going to Thursday and not postponing Saturday’s massive raceday until yesterday became obvious when torrential rain hit Auckland again late yesterday morning.
Ellerslie will run a seven-race card including the $500,000 Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup, $200,000 Bonecrusher Stakes and $200,000 Sistema Stakes.
The first race is 3.13pm and the final at 6.59pm.
Three of the races scheduled for Saturday will not be run, the reason being twofold, according to Cameron George.
“For starters we didn’t want to impact on Saturday’s Te Rapa meet- ing. Obviously this meeting wasn’t scheduled by the programming committee and the less impact we can have on Waikato the better. To run all 10 races would have been a bigger problem for them.
“Also, we had to be aware of what was happening at our events centre [in the main public grandstand].
“Every part of that had business functions and we have already asked where possible to shorten up those as much as is possible.”
Given the weather forecast, George is more than a little confident of a good attendance.
“It should be a fantastic evening with this class of racing.
“We will be pushing for local businesses to close a touch early, allowing staff to attend.”
Sense has prevailed: You can relax, the Melbourne Cup date from the first Tuesday in November will not be changed. “There are no plans to move the Melbourne Cup now or in the future,” was yesterday declared by Victoria Racing Club newly appointed chairman Amanda Elliott.
She added that speculation of a move had been unfounded and illinformed.
“The Melbourne Cup Carnival is internationally recognised and considered one of the great racing carnivals of the world.
“I emphatically assure all Australians that the Melbourne Cup will continue to be run on the first Tuesday in November,” said Mrs Elliott. Anything else would be lunacy. Speculation came after the Melbourne Racing Club announced serious consideration was being given to switching the Caulfield Cup from a handicap to weight-for-age, which would have serious implications going forward from Caulfield to the Melbourne Cup.
Loved the Melbourne headline: “Have the MRC chiefs been drinking from the Yarra River?”.