Racing: Track improving after heavy rain

The Tauranga track is expected to come back from heavy rain yesterday morning to be dead for Saturday's big raceday.

Heavy rainfall in the Bay Of Plenty on Tuesday saw the Tauranga track deteriorate from a firm 2 to a slow 9 yesterday morning.

"We had 148mm of rain," said Tauranga course manager Craig Settle.

"That made almost 700mm for the month.

"The weekend before last we had 256mm for the two days and the weekend before that, the first weekend in March, we had 161mm.

"But the track would still have been nearly perfect for Saturday if we hadn't had this week's sudden downpour."

Sir Slick, Ginga Dude, Australian galloper Bacchanal Woman, Occidentalis and Central Districts visitors Possum and My Astron were all acceptors yesterday for the $150,000 First Sovereign Trust Japan/NZ International (1600m).

"They've forecast a few showers each day but they didn't arrive today," said Settle. We had a warm, sunny day and I would say the track has come back to a slow 7.

"If we get no significant rain it should be back to dead by Saturday."