Clubs defy the odds after Victorian deluge

A 10-day barrage of storms and heavy rainfall has caused headaches for harness racing participants and clubs across Victoria.

After being battered by 88 millimetres (3 ½ inches) of rain in 30 minutes on January 2, Shepparton Harness Racing Club has defied the odds to ensure the club’s biggest annual fixture, the Neatline Homes Shepparton Gold Cup meeting goes ahead this Saturday night (Jan 13).

Bendigo Harness Racing Club was also hit by a 100-millimetre deluge on Sunday night and Monday morning (Jan 8) that left deep scours in the surface of the track but has brought forward major track restoration works that will allow racing as scheduled tonight (Jan 11).

But not so fortunate was Yarra Valley, which was forced to abandon its meeting on Monday not because of damage to assets, but due to lying water cutting off critical access points to the track and surrounds.

The wild weather brought its challenges, but Shepparton club manager Ian McDonald said the response from industry has been phenomenal.

“It was an extreme event that we have never had before that we hope we never see again.  The entire complex had three inches of water through it so we put out a call for volunteers to come and give us a hand on Saturday, once we knew the scale of the damage and what had to be done,” McDonald said.

“The water had gone through the stabling area, the stewards’ room, driver’s room and our office.  You don’t need that sort of rain on your doorstep when it’s cup week! So, we put the call out and people came, some I haven’t seen for years were among them. It was terrific,” he said.

“They cleaned up, pulled up carpets, just basically did what needed to be done to ensure we could go ahead with the cup.  So, there’ll be a lot of changes on Saturday night but they’re only cosmetic, we’ll be able to deal with all that on the night and we’re resurfacing the track now and we’ll be ready to go.”

The club has been rewarded with strong nominations from leading Victoria and NSW stables for their feature meeting.  For the Shepparton Cup meeting fields, click here.

Bendigo General Manager Erik Hendrix and his club were excited the wet weather held off to allow it to stage the 2024 Cup meeting last Saturday night (Jan 6), but by the following morning it was a different story.

“We got lucky and there was terrific racing at the cup, with track records being run, but on Sunday I went and had a look and the bottom half of the track had a lot of wash-away,” Hendrix said.

He said the club had elected to accelerate a planned track rehabilitation program as part of repairing the damage, with more than 260 tonnes of new sand brought in over two days.

“We’d been planning the resurfacing work for later next month but after having the track washed out twice in the last 15 days, we decided it was an ideal opportunity to bring forward the renovation works,” Hendrix said.

“I’ve been in the job about six years, and this would probably be the worst combination of rain and track damage I’ve seen. It was just so fast and hard, more like what they get in Queensland, and the various angles and slopes we have here put us up against it when it rains.”

“At least the positive to emerge from the negatives was that we now have the track rehabilitation work done.  We were forced to cancel trials this week but somehow we’ve managed to be able to go ahead with our meeting – it’s been a huge effort and a special thanks to my track team Andrew Dawson (head curator) and Rick Goodwin (assistant curator) as well the HRV track consultant Tom Byrne and his team for their amazing work, and two-day turnaround.”

Aside from the damage to club facilities, there’s been widespread damage to the properties and private training assets of trainers across Central Victoria, many of whom were hit by their second major flooding event in just over 12 months.

For complete Bendigo Jan. 11 race fields, click here.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink