Heavy overnight rain caused by former tropical Cyclone Ilsa forced the Alice Springs Turf Club to postpone its meeting on Saturday, which just happened to be Day 2 of its Cup Carnival.
Upwards of 30-50mm fell in the Red Centre when the rain arrived early Saturday morning and with Pioneer Park’s dirt surface left saturated it is hoped that the seven-event meeting will be re-scheduled for Monday.
The feature race on Day 2 was the $50,000 NT Guineas (1600m) for the three-year-olds, while the $30,000 The Soldier Lightning Handicap (1000m) and $26,300 Ladbrokes Racing Club Open Handicap (1900m) are also significant when looking to the future.
Starters in the Lightning would continue their preparations for the $100,000 Pioneer Sprint (1200m) and runners in the Open Handicap, and perhaps the Guineas, would also get a run under their belt leading up to the $110,000 Alice Springs Cup (2000m) on April 30.
The winner of the Lightning is exempt from the Pioneer Sprint ballot, while the winners of the Guineas and Open Handicap are also exempt from the Alice Springs Cup ballot.
Should the re-scheduled meeting not go ahead on Monday, then the three feature races might well take place next Saturday (Day 3) thus meaning the four other races scheduled for this weekend would be abandoned.
The worst case scenario is that all races programmed for Day 2 be abandoned, but it appears certain that with fine weather forecasted for Sunday – thus allowing maintenance to the track to take place – it will be all systems go come Monday.
For the record, it hadn’t rained in Alice Springs since April 4.
Mark Summers, general manager of the ASTC, released a statement around lunchtime on Saturday indicating that racing would more than likely go ahead on Monday.
“Track will be open on Sunday for trackwork, track will be a rolled surface, the trackwork supervisor will determine if there are any restrictions on Sunday morning,” the statement said.
“Track will be inspected Sunday afternoon to determine which maintenance needs to be carried out for Monday’s races.
“Track will be open for trackwork Monday morning, races for Monday currently being worked through with details to follow.”
Understandably, ASTC chairman Andrew Maloney had a few butterflies in his stomach when the race meeting was called off.
“The rain arrived overnight about 2am or 3am,” he said.
“When I was out there at Pioneer Park for the jockey’s meeting I was told that there had already been 30mm this morning, so it would have to be upwards of 50mm by now.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing, we had a big event lined up for Ladies Day in the marquee and entertainment booked – that’s all been cancelled.
“We’re expected to get sun tomorrow and after speaking with stewards David Westover and David Hensler they were trying for Monday, but I’m waiting for confirmation on that.
“If we race on Monday, it will be essentially without a crowd just so the horses can run around.
“Everything is in the mix, but at this stage it’s Monday.
“If that doesn’t happen then maybe the three features from Day 2 will be added on to next week or we just lose a meeting this year and put it down to that one in 25 year event.
“It was beautiful here yesterday and it’s expected to be beautiful tomorrow, just today we get the rain.”
Thoroughbred Racing Northern Territory chief executive officer Andrew O’Toole was optimistic the meeting would go ahead on Monday.
“It’s been steady rain and obviously the decision was made to postpone the meeting until Monday,” he said.
“Could have perhaps run it tomorrow, but it made sense to give it an extra day to allow the track to dry out and allow the staff to prepare it tomorrow.
“Hopefully the weather has gone through by that stage, it appears that it will, but the decision was made that Monday was a better day to go than Sunday.
“I would think that it will be OK once the rain stops and you have a good 24-30 hours for it to dry and to work on the track – it should be raceable come Monday.
“Hopefully they will be able to get on to the track with machinery to just break the crust with the harrows, then roll the surface.
“Due to the forecast we knew that the rain was coming, I spoke to David Westover and David Hensler about it yesterday.
“We had a contingency plan – if we couldn’t race today we could race either tomorrow or Monday.
“Times will change, the meeting will be run a little earlier in the day to allow the riders and staff to get the 5.20pm flight back to Darwin on Monday.”
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