Continuing rain has forced the cancellation of the Eagle Farm and Gold Coast race meetings today.
Racing Queensland stewards inspected both tracks this morning and declared them unsafe to proceed with their programs because of surface water and the forecast of more rain.
With more than 90mm of rain falling at Eagle Farm during the week and a further 60mm overnight stewards had no alternative but to abandoned the meeting which included the Listed $100,000 Coca-Cola Amatil Falvelon Handicap (1200m).
“There was a particularly bad area from the 1500 metres to the 1200 metres which was unsafe for racing but there was also a number of other areas that were unsafe,” chief steward Wade Birch said after inspecting Eagle Farm.
The meeting in northern New South Wales at Casino has also been abandoned and Monday’s meeting at Murrwillumbah is looking very doubtful if the rain continues over the weekend.
With Eagle Farm off, their race times have been allocated to the Newcastle meeting at Broadmeadow.
The Caulfield track for today’s big Group 1 meeting has been rated a Dead 4 while Rosehill is rated a Slow 6 with no overnight rain.
Caulfield also received no overnight rain and with a fine hot day predicted, racing conditions should be near perfect for the running of this year’s Group 1 $1m Patinack Farm Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m).
The two other Group 1s at Caulfield today are the $400,000 Sportingbet Oakleigh Plate (1100m) with super three year old Sepoy resuming and the $500,000 Cathay Pacific Futurity Stakes (1400m) featuring the return to racing of last year’s Cox Plate winner Pinker Pinker.
