Ipswich thoroughbred meeting rescheduled

The Ipswich race meeting that was abandoned on Wednesday has been transferred to Tuesday.

Racing Queensland has called for new nominations but the same eight races have been scheduled with some minor distance changes.

However, a RQ spokesman emphasised that Wednesday’s fields would not be carried over and fresh fields for Tuesday would be declared on Friday.

Earlier, trainers had asked Wednesday’s meeting be rescheduled as soon as possible after stewards abandoned it following a 6am inspection.

Steward Ian Brown inspected the track and found while it was rated a heavy in most parts, a section of track past the winning post was again unsuitable for racing.

It is the second time in a fortnight an Ipswich meeting has been abandoned when the majority of the track was soft to heavy but the 200m after the post was sodden.

Queensland Racing Integrity Commission’s chief steward Peter Chadwick also later inspected the track and agreed it was not safe for racing.

QRIC and RQ then agreed to reschedule the meeting after Thursday and Friday were discarded as an alternative because of a forecast for of storms..

The secretary of the Queensland branch of the Australian Trainers Association Cameron Partington said it was the best result trainers could have got from a bad situation.

“Tuesday’s meeting will be for metropolitan prize money and at least that won’t be lost to the industry,” he said.

“But we just can’t afford for these things to keep happening up here.”