Three race meetings hit by weather
IT was not just cricket fans who had their weekend’s plans cancelled by weather over the weekend.
Racegoers at both ends of the country were sent home after three meetings were called off on Saturday and yesterday.
Wyndham Cup day was abandoned yesterday after the track became unsafe.
Although the meeting was initially delayed, racing was eventually called off completely.
Later in the afternoon, the Auckland greyhound meeting at Manakau was also called off. The greyhounds did take to a rainsodden track to complete one race before the decision was made to cancel racing.
Both abandonments came on the back of the rescheduling of Saturday’s Auckland Cup meeting at Ellerslie.
The meeting’s feature races will be run as part of a sevenrace twilight meeting on Thursday.
‘‘Up until 4 o’clock on
Friday, the track was a dead5 or 6, but since then more than 100ml of rain has fallen with the forecast of more to come,’’ chief executive Cameron George said on Saturday.
‘‘We made the decision after a track inspection at 6 o’clock [on Saturday] morning and now we’re looking forward to a twilight meeting in Thursday.’’
The TAB refunded tote, futures and finalfield fixedodds bets on the meeting’s races.
While the rain and the rescheduling of the Auckland Cup meeting was a major disappointment for many, trainer Stephen Marsh was not necessarily in that camp.
His runner, Sofia Rosa, will be suited by running on Thursday’s rainaffected track in the group 1 Bonecrusher Stakes.
The chances of Sofia Rosa’s stablemates, Serious Satire and Thee Auld Floozie, in the group 2 Westbury Classic will only be enhanced by those conditions, too.
‘‘The rain has come at the right time for Sofia Rosa and she needs to go close this time if she’s to go back to Sydney. If she doesn’t, we’ll look at a trip to Brisbane.’’
Serious Satire comes into the race after building fitness this campaign and is aided by a 3kg drop in weight from her laststart third at Ellerslie.
‘‘She drops back from 1600m to 1400m this time, but will go back to 1600m in the Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha next time provided she races up to her best here.
‘‘Thee Auld Floozie is not well off in the weights with 58kg this time, but I suppose she earned that in the Thorndon.’’
Trainer Allan Sharrock is hoping class alone will carry class act Kawi through Thursday’s conditions in the Bonecrusher Stakes.
‘‘We all know he’s better on a decent surface, but I’m hoping he’ll get through these conditions, which won’t be bottomless even if it’s heavy.’’
While some of New Zealand’s best gallopers were denied the chance to race on Saturday, a topclass former Kiwi made the most of his crack at one of Australia’s best races.
Humidor, now trained in Victoria by Darren Weir, gunned down Caulfield Cup winner Jameka late to win the group 1 Australian Cup at Flemington on Saturday.
A The appeal of high profile jockey James McDonald’s 18month suspension from riding starts today.
McDonald was handed the sentence on December 22 after a hearing into him betting on Astern in a race on December 5, 2015.
McDonald pleaded guilty to a stewards’ charge after he had a professional punter place a $1000 bet for him on the horse, which won, resulting in a $4000 profit.
The jockey is appealing the length of his ban, which officially started on November 15, 2016 and means he is out of racing until May 15, 2018.
Rule AR 83 (d), under which McDonald was charged, carries a minimum penalty of two years’ disqualification and applies unless stewards establish special circumstances.