By Michael Guerin
The Alexandra Park meeting postponed on Thursday because of shocking weather in Auckland will move to Saturday, but with one race less.
The meeting is a crucial lead-up to next Friday’s five Group-1 race meeting at the same venue, with Thursday’s canned meeting scheduled to hold both the Oaks and Derby Preludes.
But Cyclone Tam has brought heavy rainfall and strong winds and left thousands of homes in the upper North Island without power. Ferries have also been cancelled and many domestic flights in and out of Auckland have been delayed or cancelled.
The call to postpone the meeting was made early afternoon on Thursday over weather and safety concerns.
An almost identical meeting will now be held on Saturday night but with the last race, a maiden, canned because of TAB scheduling constraints.
To assist the connections of horses who would have started in that maiden race HRNZ will add a new maiden race to next Friday’s massive meeting, with the stake raised from $15,000 to $20,000 and preference given to horses who were in the now deleted race.
Almost all bets on the meeting scheduled for Thursday have been refunded but the TAB are sticking solid on their Box Seat Boosted Bet, having given a $3 price for a $100 maximum bet on Beside Me to win the Northern Oaks Prelude.
TAB bookmaker Ben Grimstone confirmed the special bet will stand even though Beside Me was into $1.70 on Thursday afternoon.
Horses who had been scratched from Thursday’s programme are eligible to go back into the fields for Saturday. The Alexandra Park meeting will now run alongside a huge programme from Addington.
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