Yesterday's showers came too late to save Sunday's Waverley Cup meeting after officials pulled the pin over fears for track safety.
The Waverley Racecourse track cannot be watered after the worst drought conditions in 70 years and the status of Cup day was up in the air as New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing's national venue inspector Garry Foskett had been monitoring the turf for several weeks.
Waverley Racing Club announced Foskett and stipendiary steward Neil Goodwin made the final call to abandon Sunday's meeting after four horses galloped at the country track yesterday for senior riders Lisa Allpress and Jonathon Parkes.
``The inspection determined that given the very firm nature of the Waverley track and inconsistencies in the grass cover, the track was currently not conducive to conducting a race meeting.'' While there was some rain conditions overnight on Sunday, Foskett advised only 5ml had been recorded in the 24 hours up to that point.
Even the wet weather later yesterday afternoon ``would not be sufficient to make a material difference in the track before the weekend''.
Foskett said most trainers ``were very concerned, given the current drought-like conditions around the country that we should not be racing on tracks where no irrigation was available''.
This also meant at this stage that rainfall on the day could cause further safety issues, Foskett explained.
Disappointed club president John Boon advised NZTR they could not move the meeting within a week due to commitments to local sponsors.
That support had let the Waverley club boost the stake money by $40,000 above industry funding for the Cup.
``It's just the drought conditions and not having the irrigation,'' Boon said. ``For the benefit of the horses namely, and the jockeys, we've come to this decision.''
The pin had to be pulled yesterday to give everyone plenty of advanced notification, he said.
Boon said they would talk to club sponsors and the community and look to increase the stakes for one of the other race meetings later this season.
At this stage, this includes April 16, and possibly a meeting on May 23.
``I think they're doing renovations at the Otaki track,'' Boon said.
He was sure track conditions would improve by mid-April.
``Hopefully with the weather patterns, I'm very confident we will be racing there.''
With the Cup day lost, NZTR consulted industry groups and agreed to add a $15,000 open 2100m handicap to this Friday's Waipukurau meeting as well as a 2-year-old's $7000 maiden at Wanganui on Thursday, March 28.
This is to give opportunities to those horses which missed out.
``NZTR will also look to divide races at either Waipukurau or Wanganui if there are sufficient nominations.''-->-->