Rain forces shake up

A week of rain has seen a major shake up of race meetings. Heavy rain forced the meeting scheduled for the Vaal Racecourse yesterday to be abandoned – and tomorrow’s Turffontein meeting to be moved to Sunday. There has been heavy and continuous rain throughout the week on the Highveld and the decision to scrap the Vaal fixture followed a track inspection and gallops yesterday morning. The inspection committee was of the opinion that the track was soft and inconsistent. This is the third race meeting to have been cancelled this week, with Monday’s Kimber-

ley card and Tuesday’s Vaal card also falling victim to the weather. Tomorrow’s Turffontein Standside track meeting will be moved to Sunday, as a “Twilight” meeting starting at 3pm. The last race is scheduled to go off at 7.40pm. “Unfortunately, the weather is not something we can control,” said Rob Scott, Betting Executive at Phumelela. “We can, however, control our racing schedule, and we have therefore made the change in an attempt to ensure that the Turffontein meeting goes ahead. “By rescheduling it to a twilight meeting on Sunday we are giving the Turffontein track as much time as possibly to dry out sufficiently to ensure that racing takes place on a safe surface. “It also gives trainers, jockeys, the racing public and other stakeholders ample time to plan.” An additional race meeting is now also scheduled for Wednesday, February 20 at Turffontein. Racegoers should also note that there is a Carryover of around R28,000 on the Quartet on the last race at Sunday’s Turffontein meeting. The estimated pool is R400,000.