Mother Nature has not been a kind beast to Racing Orange in recent years and that trend’s continued into season 2016-17 – the organisation’s scheduled opening meet on Friday was postponed late last week.
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There’s been seemingly countless meetings postponed or cancelled at Towac Park in the last few seasons and thanks to the recent weather conditions Friday’s meet is the newest casualty.
Racing Orange executive officer Gavin Pilossof expressed his disappointment but was realistic, considering the weather around the region the meet has been in doubt for some time.
“We’ve had almost 950 millimetres of rain at Towac Park since May, that’s a lot of water, and about 240 of that has been in September alone,” Pilossof said.
As one would expect, that amount of rain has “waterlogged” the refurbished Towac Park track.
The biggest problem of all is the helpless situation that puts the track’s groundsmen in, Pilossof said.
“The track is just waterlogged. The problem is we can’t get on to the track to do anything without damaging it, so we’re sort of stuck on the sidelines,” he explained.
“It is very disappointing. It’s colder in Orange, so the track won’t dry out as quickly as say Dubbo or Wellington and that makes it difficult at times as well.
The postponement means Racing Orange will “kick off the season with a bang” as Pilossof said.
This year’s Melbourne Cup Day meeting is on Tuesday, November 1.
