Overnight rain that battered the state won’t interrupt racing at Bendigo and Mildura tomorrow or Wangaratta on Sunday, according to club administrators.
While Birchip’s Sunday cup day has been postponed and tonight’s Kilmore racing transferred to Melton, other scheduled meetings are expected to proceed as planned.
Bendigo received 43 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am this morning, and club general manager Erik Hendrix said the rainfall had damaged the track but he was optimistic “we should be fine”.
“Our crew will be under the pump today,” Mr Hendrix said. “We’ve had a fair bit of damage, but with the day in hand I would expect to be racing tomorrow.
“The sand looks to have run down to the bottom of the track and created ripples and they will be working on it this afternoon to get it back up to racing standard. It costs a day and a half of work, but it’s not disastrous.”
Bendigo’s 11-race program on Friday precedes a further 11 races at Mildura on Friday night, and Mildura secretary Michelle McGinty-Williams said the club’s most pressing need wasn’t track conditions but horse stalls.
A fantastic night’s racing is in the offing with 118 horses entered at Mildura, which received a more modest 20 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am.
“Tracks are faring very well,” Ms McGinty-Williams said. “We’ve had it on and off, most of it yesterday, and the trainers said it was beautiful.
“We didn’t have any downpours. We haven’t touched the track because it’s such a small amount.”
Moods are also chipper at Wangaratta Harness Racing Club ahead of its cups day on Sunday.
Despite the town receiving 40 millimetres, club secretary Bernadette Costantino said the track was “pretty good”, adding if it stopped raining we could run this afternoon”.
“They will be doing some work on it tomorrow, but we would have been anyway.”
HRV Trots Media – Michael Howard