The Rosehill meeting scheduled for Saturday has been postponed by 24 hours as Racing NSW moves to protect participants from dangerous heat conditions forecast for Sydney.

Officials had been closely assessing weather models throughout the week and with temperatures in the city’s west still expected to exceed 40 degrees on Saturday, chief steward Tom Moxon confirmed the call to shift the program to Sunday.

“We have reviewed that forecast again this morning and unfortunately, there hasn’t been much of a variation to those forecasts,” Moxon told Sydney’s Sky Sports Radio.

“The decision has been made this morning to transfer the meeting to Sunday, still at Rosehill Gardens where the forecast is for more favourable conditions with temperatures around the mid to high 20s.”

Acceptances for the 10-race program will proceed as usual on Wednesday, with race times to be arranged to avoid clashes with the existing provincial meeting.

“We’re mindful we already have a Hawkesbury meeting scheduled for Sunday also, so we will have to organise times for Rosehill around that Hawkesbury meeting,” Moxon said.

Friday is also expected to be hot in Sydney, but the Randwick Kensington twilight meeting will go ahead as the later start time keeps it in the cooler part of the day.

A country meeting at Mudgee is likewise pencilled in for Friday and Racing NSW will continue monitoring conditions before making a final call.

Punters can check betting markets for all rescheduled weekend racing via Australia’s leading bookmaker sites.