Surface flooding at Oamaru caused tomorrow's meeting to be abandoned. Photo / Supplied
The construction of a synthetic galloping track in the north is critical.
Abandoning of tomorrow's Oamaru meeting, transferring today's Taranaki raceday to tomorrow and transferring yesterday's Te Aroha races until Monday costs the industry unacceptable sums.
The NZ Racing Board put the figure of a spate of abandonments early in the winter at around $2 million.
But a catch 22 situation exists - the cost of installing a synthetic surface on three racetracks in the north, central districts and in the South Island would be up to $35 million.
All surpluses in the last 12 months have gone toward increasing stakemoney, leaving little for infrastructure development.
One one hand currently the industry cannot afford the tracks, but neither can it afford to sustain the losses being without synthetic tracks.
That is the bind Thoroughbred Racing's brand new CEO Bernard Saundry finds himself in after just three weeks with his feet under the desk.
"I agree it needs to be addressed in the mix of solutions looked at," Saundry told the Herald yesterday. "Synthetic tracks have been very successful worldwide."
Saundry's home state of Victoria races successfully on the synthetic at Geelong and Packenham.
Victoria also has the luxury of the StrathAyr grass surface at Moonee Valley, which can take remarkable levels of rain and race successfully.
Moonee Valley's surface is 10 years beyond its use-by date and is racing as well as ever.
"The secret to that," says Saundry, "is the renovation done for two or three months in the late autumn a couple of years ago.
"It races beautifully from September to April. It can take hard racing and a lot of rain."
Tomorrow's Oamaru meeting was abandoned because of flooding and yesterday's Te Aroha meeting transferred to Monday after overnight wind damage to the main grandstand.
Even though the track was safe to race on, the state of the grandstand was such that the venue could not operate in a safe manner, but with work to be carried out this weekend the meeting is now rescheduled for Monday.
The Opunake Cup fixture at New Plymouth will now be held tomorrow.
"We had to make an early decision and let everyone know about our meeting," Taranaki Racing Inc chief executive officer Carey Hobbs said.
"We've had 300mls of rain this month, 70 this week and 20 overnight. It's still raining on and off so we've got surface water and there is heavy rain forecast again tonight.
"We are mindful that it is a very important race day and we were less than 50-50 to race on Saturday. We made the early call and we believe there is a 95-100 per cent chance we can race on Sunday."
There will be no change to the original fields and all scratchings will be re-instated.
• Race 1 at Ruakaka today should tell the story of how the day may pan out.
Yes, Not The Usual Trip is one of the powerful Logan/Gibbs team and could show the way to his stablemates. The colt made a winning debut at Ellerslie before being beaten when well fancied at Te Rapa. He has been freshened and the tip is to look at the Ellerslie run and forget all about Te Rapa. Contessa Vanessa will be fit after having chased the hugely talented Florence Jean here two weeks ago. This should be a good quinella prospect.
A wide barrier for Dancing Light (No7, R2) cost the Logan/Gibbs team a win at the last Ruakaka meeting. He came out of No13 and has the rails barrier this time and Chris Johnson will make the most of that. Attimo (No16) was well beaten on debut, but the heavy track did not appear to suit. If she gets back into the field she can go better here, although drawn badly.
Race 3 is the best betting race on the card. Stablemates Chachar (No7) and Hollywood Lass (No9) are going to be right in the action from good barriers over the 1200m for trainer Tony Pike. The pair clashed in a recent barrier trial with Chachar coming out on top.
Wyndspelle (No4) showed real potential for the Logan/Gibbs stable earlier in the season and although he will quickly need more distance than this, he should run a big sprint while fresh. Solmization (No3) was posted three wide in the open when going for three in a row last time and is worth consideration.
Local trainer Kim Knight is doing a good job with Spider (No5, R5). He tried hard when narrowly beaten by Amarula (No1) and meets that horse 1kg better here. There is 7kg between the two and you would normally rule out a horse carrying 61kg, but Amarula is so tough when he's in front he can never be ignored. They look to have this to themselves as they did two weeks ago.
Not much to chose between the Logan/Gibbs pair Rockabyebaby (No11, R6) and Command Royale (No3).
Rockabyebaby was assisted to a win here two weeks back by the field fanning right across the track early in the home straight.
She had to make up only four lengths, but you had to like the way she hit the line. She looks like a stayer and will appreciate the step up to 1400m. Command Royale looks to have a future and comes out of a very favourable barrier.
Of all the Logan Gibbs Ruakaka winners at recent meetings, few have made more of an impression that Chasing Great (No1, R7).
He didn't have to get to the absolute maximum to drive through the entire field to score here two weeks back and this special conditions race looks well within his scope. Checkout (No9) looks better placed here than at her last start.
- Additional reporting NZ Racing Desk