The prayers of the Auckland Racing Club were answered yesterday.
Early in the week ARC racing manager Andrew Castles declared a slow track for today's Ellerslie races was close enough to a given.
Even one good day's drying mid-week was negated by the 6mm of rain on the course on
Thursday night.
But if six wise heads sat around and ordered the perfect drying day they could not have come up with one as good as the one delivered in Auckland yesterday. Sunshine, warmth and strong winds means the racing surface will be a lot closer to perfect than anyone could have hoped for.
"The track has come back unbelievably," declared Castles late yesterday afternoon. "It was a genuine slow 7 this morning and if the weather stays the same, which it's meant to, it will be back to a dead 6 in the morning and if it's not it will be by the time they start racing at 12.30pm. By mid-afternoon they'll be racing on a surface much better than we could have hoped for."
Which is great news for connections of the scores of horses scratched from meetings in the past few weeks because of wet tracks.
The number of horses waiting in the wings for a start is building to the point of breaking and making it difficult for many to actually get to the races. Another wet track today with a host of scratchings would have worsened the problem.
