Racing: Rain becomes pain as New Plymouth meeting abandoned in stormy conditions

Class miler Brando returns in the Memorial at Ruakaka. Photo / Trish Dunell

New Zealand racing has lost another Saturday meeting after today's Taranaki programme was scrapped because of the waterlogged track in a costly move.

The meeting, which was to have featured the $60,000 Interprovincial Championship, was abandoned today after torrential rain in New Plymouth left surface water on the track, with more heavy rain forecast.

It continues a frustrating and expensive winter of abandonments for thoroughbred racing, mostly caused by heavy rain.

One ray of good news is the rain did not reach the nearby Waverley track, so Sunday's jumping and highweight jockeys meeting will go ahead unless there is a dramatic downpour tomorrow.

Any race meeting abandonment costs the industry tens of thousands at a minimum, but Saturdays are incredibly expensive, as not only is it the biggest punting day of the week, but New Zealand now usually holds only two meetings per Saturday, so the domestic races are halved.

That leaves Ruakaka as the only New Zealand meeting and it will start earlier than originally scheduled at 12.30pm.

At least it has a serious Group 3 race there in the Breeders Stakes and the return of class milers Brando, Prise De Fer and Markus Aurelius in the Reed Memorial over 1400m.

That trio give Mark Walker, now solely back in control of the Te Akau equine army, a dominant hand in the open handicap.

Although Brando won't benefit from an apprentice claim and so now carries topweight, Walker still opts for him as his best hope of the trio.

"I think he might be the sharper of them," says Walker.

"He trialled really well at Te Rapa recently and we took all three of these to Taupō last week for separate private gallops and I think he is the most forward."

Walker has Lord Cosmos in the Breeders, and while he is no slouch, it almost feels like he is favourite more because of his stable and Opie Bosson riding than his form.

Lord Cosmos should settle handy, and if the speed is on, may finish over the top of flying fillies Pacific Dragon and Lickety Split, but there is nothing to suggest he is better than them.

Still, there is little between them in the market and punters could go broke betting against Te Akau two and three-year-olds, albeit Pacific Dragon and Lickety Split have both beaten the Te Akau stars before.

Although New Zealand is shorn of one of its gallops meetings, one of last season's best New Zealand juveniles, Wolverine, makes her Australian debut in the Silver Shadow Stakes, having been transferred to the Kris Lees stable, with expat jockey Jason Collett to ride.