The long awaited return of racing to Eagle Farm has been put on hold again after today’s Queensland Oaks meeting was cancelled due to the heavy rain that has continued to fall throughout Friday night and Saturday morning.

Dawnie Perfect, above, would have started one of the favourites for the Queensland Oaks at Eagle Farm. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Racing Queensland stewards inspected the track early on Saturday morning and gave the meeting the go ahead after rating it a Heavy 9 following 32mm of rain in the last twenty-four hours.

But after a further inspection following a morning of torrential rain, the meeting was called off at 9am.

“It’s just heavy rain, wind. The horses galloped at 6am. We were satisfied prior to and after the gallop the surface was fine,” Chief Steward Allan Reardon said.

“But those marks are full of water now. The conditions since then have worsened and there was also an issue that the ambulance couldn’t get over the A grass.”

The stewards and the Brisbane Racing Club committee are currently meeting to see if the Group 1 $500,000 Treasury Casino & Hotel Queensland Oaks (2400m) can be rescheduled to another day, possibly on Stradbroke Handicap next Saturday.

Eagle Farm had been closed since August 2014 for a complete reconstruction of the course proper and racing was due to resume there on May 11 but was pushed back to today when it was feared the new surface wasn’t ready for racing at that stage.