SUNSHINE COAST ON WEATHER WATCH

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The unseasonal, heavy rainfall continues to test the patience of trainers in South East Queensland as work and race schedules for their runners plays second fiddle to the will of the weather gods.

Any hope of holding the meeting at Ipswich today was washed out by yesterday’s steady, and at times intense, rainfall system which caused flash flooding in a number of areas.

If they do kick off at Eagle Farm tomorrow, the soft underfoot conditions will, in all likelihood, again lead to a high number of scratchings. Small fields and the type of going which can turn a race into a lottery diminishes the attraction of the product and compromises everyone’s chances – from owners, trainers, jockeys, punters to the tote operators - of making their projected income.

Nobody is at fault. It is a situation which has been lived with through the ages.

The Sunshine Coast Turf Club is at risk of being most affected by the big-wet. They raced as usual on Sunday after switching the meeting to the Cushion Track. The meeting was an unpleasant one for all concerned, with periods of torrential rain and wind gusts pummelling the course. Standing water filled the parade ring and horses returning to the enclosure churned up the grass area leaving behind a muddy mess (see photos). The turf track was unraceable.

This is how the Sunshine Coast Turf Club started the week, six days out from their signature Coloundra Cup meeting this coming Saturday. Twelve races have been scheduled for that meeting, eight on the grass and four on the Cushion Track.

The weather forecast at the Sunshine Coast for the coming week is hopeful, allowing some periods of relief interspersed with some showers, notably on Friday, but is it not a happy situation, given the starting point of a thoroughly soaked surface last Sunday. It will be a race in itself and a lot of hard work for the track staff to get the grass track up to a reasonable racing surface by the big day on Saturday.

The hope is obviously that the main features of the day, the Coloundra Cup, the Glasshouse and the Guineas, stay on the grass. The Cushion Track option is always there but, whichever side you sit on the fence of this controversial surface, it would be better if these features take place on the grass track for which they have been scheduled and for which horses have been prepared – to the extent that consideration should be given to postponing these features if the worst case scenario does apply.

Hopefully, we won’t need to go there although, if you had been at the track on Sunday, even with the most optimistic view in the world, you would have already been working on Plan B.

Having said that, all things considered, racing in South East Queensland has come through this sort of situation quite well before, notable at the Doomben 10 000 meeting, when midweek concern turned into a happy day out on Saturday.

May it turn out the same way for the Sunshine Coast.