Preparations were underway on the Flemington course proper with mowers working diligently even as horses returned to the mounting yard after Cox Plate Day’s final race, anticipating incoming rain.
Flemington racecourse manager Liam O’Keeffe and his staff worked through the night to ensure the track was ready for Sunday’s rain, which saw 53mm fall from late Saturday night into Monday morning.
The efforts were successful, as O’Keeffe noted the Flemington track was rated better than slow for Tuesday morning’s ‘Breakfast With The Stars’ event.
Flemington’s workload increased significantly as it had to host the transferred Cox Plate meeting from Moonee Valley, which was undergoing a rebuild, in addition to its own four scheduled Melbourne Cup Carnival meetings.
O’Keeffe admitted that Saturday proved fortunate, with only light showers occurring during the race meeting, and most essential track preparation having been completed prior to the heavier rainfall.
“During the meeting we had 2mm of rainfall which came on top of 3mm before the meeting had started,” O’Keeffe said. “Given we irrigated, we were probably on the softer side of a (good) 4 for the whole day.”
He added, “Immediately after the meeting we mowed the track and then carried out some light repairs knowing there was heavy rainfall coming on Sunday, and Sunday, we stayed completely off the track, let mother nature take its course.”
“I rang the mowers around 7.30 (Saturday night) and said ‘you might to step it up a gear’ because the rain is coming, but fortunately the storms broke up and it was a bit of rain, rather than the heavy rain until Sunday. The rain soaked in really well.”
O’Keeffe expressed his pleasant surprise at the track’s recovery following Saturday’s nine-race Cox Plate program.
He outlined the mowing schedule: four inches on Saturday night, the same height on Tuesday with fertiliser applied, and a further mow to approximately four-and-a-half inches by Friday.
“It leaves that little bit of length there and slows the drying down in case we get a warm day,” O’Keeffe stated. “We may have to irrigate again on Thursday just to keep it ticking over to Saturday. There’s a couple of showers forecast for Saturday, but we’re still five days out and that can jump around a little bit.”
O’Keeffe confirmed the rail would remain in the true position for Saturday’s Victoria Day Derby program.
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