Saturday’s racing at Randwick postponed after stewards deem track ‘not suitable’

Horse racing has been thrown into chaos with Saturday’s action at Randwick postponed.

Racing NSW Stewards issued a short statement on social media on Saturday morning.

“Randwick Postponed. Inspection deemed track not suitable for racing,” the statement said.

It means the highly anticipated Group 2 Missile Stakes (the first stakes meeting of the Sydney season) will have to be held another day.

“Following a further inspection for the Randwick Course Proper, the race meeting today has been postponed due to the track being unsuitable to race following 45.3 mm of rainfall overnight,” Australian Turf Club said.

The course proper was a heavy 9 on Thursday after receiving over 155 mils of rain this week. That amount was the equivalent of the usual monthly total in seven days.

With another dumping overnight, the track simply couldn’t cope.

“We conducted a track gallop just before 6am this morning and the feedback from the riders was, the track was as heavy as it could be and we didn’t need any further rain,” Racing NSW chief steward Tom Moxon said.

“Unfortunately, that rain fell a short time after that.

“There are some parts of the track that has surface water present and the forecast is for more showers during the day.”

Race meetings at country tracks Louth and Casino have also been called off.

In fact, the only meeting that will go ahead in NSW on Saturday is in Newcastle.

Disappointed fans were quick to turn on Randwick’s inability to deal with heavy rain.

“Hopefully they move the meeting from the Randwick swamp to Rosehill, a decent track that can cop some rain,” one fan fumed on X (formerly Twitter).

While form analyst Mitchell Bazley said: “Crazy how quick they’ll call it off at Randwick but they’ll let the horses travel through mud at Rosehill. Proper double standards in the duty of care games. It’s a joke.”

Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club will now have to work when the Missile Stakes will be held, and what other races will be rescheduled.

It is expected Racing NSW will make an announcement later today about the rescheduling.