Stewards will inspect a rain-hit Warwick Farm on Friday to help determine the fate of Saturday’s important Chipping Norton Stakes meeting.

“It’s a heavy ten at the moment. If we were racing today we wouldn’t be racing,” Warwick Farm track manager James Cataldo said.

“It’s drying out a bit now and we haven’t had much rain this afternoon, but we’ve had 97 millimetres since last night.

“The surface water is getting away now and it’s slowly improving.

“Hopefully we get some good drying weather and we’ll be right.”

Trackwork at Warwick Farm on Thursday morning had to be called off early at around 7am (AEDT) due to the amount of water in two access tunnels to the track.

“The access tunnels were under water and the pumps just couldn’t keep up with the volume of water,” Cataldo said.

Deputy chief steward Marc Van Gestel confirmed that Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy would inspect the Warwick Farm surface on Friday, along with Cataldo and the Australian Turf Club’s general manager of racecourses Lindsay Murphy.

“Ray will go out tomorrow afternoon to ascertain how it has handled the wet weather,” Van Gestel said.

“They are predicting a clear day tomorrow so hopefully we’ll be able to race on Saturday.”

Van Gestel said it was likely an additional inspection would be conducted on Saturday morning.

The eight-race card at Warwick Farm features the Group One Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m), the Group Two Surround Stakes (1200m), the Group Three Liverpool City Cup (1300m) and the Listed Wiggle Stakes (1400m).

The Australian Turf Club is offering free entry for racegoers at Warwick Farm for Chipping Norton Stakes day, with the main race being the first Group One of the Sydney autumn carnival.