Decision to be made after water subsides
A decision will be made at the weekend on whether a race meeting will proceed at Forbury Park next Thursday after damage to the track by torrential rain.
The extent of damage to the track and weather will determine when repairs can be carried out to resume racing at the venue.
The meeting scheduled for Thursday night (June 4) was abandoned after torrential rain in Dunedin on Wednesday damaged the track and caused flooding to boxes used for horses.
The raceway bore the brunt of a 160mm rainfall, a record for a day in Dunedin.
“We will attempt to have the track repaired in time for a meeting next week but we won’t know the extent of the damage until the water has drained away,” said John Ayoub, the general manager of the Forbury Park Trotting Club.
“We would need good weather to undertake repairs and the forecast is only average.”
The club held discussion with Harness Racing New Zealand on Thursday to consider options.
“Transferring to another venue is a possibility,” Ayoub said.
The Forbury Park club transferred a meeting to Addington in April, 2009.
In the event of the club being unable to race at Forbury Park next Thursday, the Harness Racing Waikato meeting at Cambridge will be transferred to that date from Sunday, June 14, said Edward Rennell, the chief executive of Harness Racing New Zealand. He said a decision on the Forbury Park track would be made on Sunday after an assessment by HRNZ venue inspector, John Denton and officials of the Forbury Park club the previous day.
“It is the worst flooding I have seen in the seven years I have been at Forbury Park,” said Ken McFarlane, the track manager.
“It will be a massive repair job to the track and clean up of other facilities.”
The rain ceased overnight but there is considerable water lying on the track, close to the top of track pylons in places.
That would drain away when an outlet valve to the city system opened.
The valve
would
open
when water pressure from outside the course was relieved from drainage of those areas.
There was scouring of the track, some deep in several places which will require remedial work.
“There will be lot of work involved and areas will require different attention depending on the damage,” said McFarlane.
“We won’t know the full extent of the damage until the water goes down.”
Several of the power boxes supplying electricity to the lighting system will require checking after being under water.
The majority of the boxes used to house horses will need to have the sawdust bedding replaced after being flooded.
“We have 57 boxes and probably 45 will need to to be stripped out,” he said.
There was water on the greyhound track inside the harness track, but John Carlyle, the manager of the Otago Greyhound Racing Club was hopeful a meeting could be held there on June 16.
“The track is under water in one place near the winning post and we have possibly lost a bit of sand so there could be a bit of work to do,” he said.
“Our big concern is the high water table. We had to abandon a meeting [May 12] when conditions were dangerous.”