Auckland meeting postponed until Saturday night

Alexandra Park will host a rare but high class Saturday night meeting tomorrow after tonight’s harness racing meeting was postponed.

Heavy rain saw rutting develop in a section of the track on the home bend early on Friday afternoon, not uncommon on harness racing tracks because of their steep camber. The water running down from the top of the track can cut into the surface and those holes can widen and deepen as water from subsequent rain finds its way to the same areas.

Track officials did all they could to protect against the issue, rolling and sealing the track on Friday morning, but the decision to delay the meeting was made for safety reasons.

“I think that is important to note,” says John Denton, New Zealand’s foremost expert on harness tracks.

“We see it a bit more often at Cambridge and Alexandra Park after really heavy rain because they have a steeper camber than Addington.

“But we even get it at Addington if the rain is bad enough so I don’t think there is much more they could have done.

“I am going up in the morning (Saturday) to help them get it ready for tomorrow night.”

It’s estimated once the weather clears that the remedial work will take around 90 minutes.

The meeting, which features the return of Merlin in the IRT Spring Cup (8.46pm) and the Group 1 Caduceus Club Classic for two-year-old fillies (8.19pm), will now have its first race at 5.17pm on Saturday.

All bets already placed on final field markets or the tote have been cancelled and refunded even though the meeting will now go ahead with the same fields.

For complete race entries, click here

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand