Kumara Racing Club abandons annual Gold Nuggets meeting for second year in a row

A dejected Kumara Racing Club acting president Patrick Meates, left, stands in water with the club's stipendiary steward Jeff McLaughlin at a sodden Kumara track this morning. Photo / Paul McBride, Greymouth Star

Torrential rain last night and today proved too much for the Kumara Racing Club, which was forced to abandon its annual Gold Nuggets meeting on Saturday - for the second year in a row.

The cancellation comes only a day after the Westland Racing Club had to pull the pin on Hokitika's only race day, also because of dangerous track conditions from heavy rain falling on a parched turf.

So far only the Greymouth Jockey Club has raced in the four-day New Year galloping circuit, striking glorious sunshine on Sunday; the circuit finishes on Tuesday at Reefton, when better weather is forecast.

The Kumara club made the reluctant decision late this morning after a track inspection by committee members and stipendiary steward Jeff McLaughlin found the track had become saturated with surface water following heavy overnight rain.

With more heavy rain forecast for the rest of today and tomorrow, the club says it had no option in the interests of the health and safety or both riders and horses.

"We walked the track this morning and there's a lot of water on the track," McLaughlin said.

"With the heavy rain which has fallen this morning and overnight, and more rain forecast, it was decided for the safety of equine and human participants the meeting would be abandoned. A couple of horses galloped on the track this morning and the track coped, but it's the rain and the surface water which is the issue."

The 2017 meeting was also abandoned with a day's notice after a 600m section of the track going out of the straight was ruled to be unsafe, and the club has since spent $50,000 on repairing the offending section of the course.

Kumara Racing Club acting president Patrick Meates said it was a bitter blow for the club but health and safety was paramount.

"It's a big disappointment for us but it was made as a safety call," Meates said.

- Greymouth Star