It is set to be a day for the mudlarks at Canterbury Racecourse this Saturday with the Sydney track, famous for being one of the country’s best wet weather racing venues, having been hammered with close to 70mm of rain over the past two days.
Yulalona is one of three horses sharing 2011 Frank Underwood Cup favouritism
A top eight-race program is scheduled to run at Canterbury tomorrow, the meeting headlined by Race 6 – the $100,000 Listed Canterbury BMW Frank Underwood Cup (1900m).
However, with the latest reports being that the Canterbury track is currently rated a Heavy (9), there are plenty of owners and trainers sweating on how the course handles the additional downpours forecast for today and tonight.
There has already been a number of notable Canterbury race scratchings due to the weather including the Gai Waterhouse-trained Teardrop Rock coming out of the Frank Underwood Cup 2011 field.
Teardrop Rock was rated a $10 chance in the Frank Underwood Cup odds at Luxbet at the time of their withdrawal, markets led by Miss Keepsake, Zara Dancer and Yulalona all at a quote of $6.50.
It has been a tumultuous time in New South Wales weather-wise over the past week with two meetings, Hawkesbury and Wyong, already having been abandoned due to track conditions.
A third meeting at Orange that was scheduled for today and where ace hoops Nash Raillwer and Hugh Bowman were set to make appearances has also been put on hold until Monday.
So the question punters are eager to have answered is, Will the Canterbury Race Day go Ahead on Saturday?
At this stage the answer, according to the Australian Turf Club (ATC) manager Lindsay Murphy, is yes but it all depends on how much rain falls between now and tomorrow morning.
“It is a little better today than it was yesterday because the water has moved through the profile of the track,” Murphy said on Thursday.
“The forecast for (Friday) is not good, we had isolate showers (on Thursday) but the forecast is for rain periods again so hopefully that doesn’t eventuate.
“We will cope with it, it just depends how much and when it falls.”
If there is one venue that can handle the summer wet season it is definitely Canterbury according to ATC chief executive Darren Pearce.
“We are probably lucky in how the programming has worked out because some of our other tracks (Warwick Farm, Rosehill, Randwick) may not have been able to cope with this much rain,” he said.
“Canterbury has tremendous drainage and tends to stand up to the weather better than most tracks in Sydney.”
Stay tuned to Races.com.au to view our insider Frank Underwood Stakes form analysis and tips to be published shortly.
In the meantime why not check out the latest Frank Underwood Stakes odds and other markets for Canterbury tomorrow at Luxbet.
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