Anzac Day races at Murwillumbah called off due to flood damage

TWEED River Jockey Club general manager Brian Charman says the club is confident the Murwillumbah track will be ready for its next meeting despite the Anzac Day races being called off.

The Murwillumbah track during the recent floods. Photos: Jesse Graham and Bella Rabjones.

TWEED River Jockey Club general manager Brian Charman says the club is confident the Murwillumbah track will be ready for its next meeting despite the Anzac Day races being called off.

The club has abandoned its annual Anzac Day program that was to be held next Tuesday on the recommendation of stewards.

They said the track hadn’t recovered in time from flooding that put the track and some of the facilities under water for about five days early this month.

Charman said the club was comfortable with the decision, which was made in the hope of giving the track time to mend before the next meeting on May 8.

“Having known our track here I knew that it wasn’t going to be to the standard that they would expect it to be,” Charman said.

“It was just whether they thought it could go around.

“We are happy they have made a decision so we can make an early call rather then leaving it until Tuesday.

“Now we just put that behind us and work hard to make sure we get everything done before May 8.”

The Murwillumbah winning post pokes through the floodwater. Photos: Jesse Graham and Bella Rabjones.

Stewards will return to inspect the track on May 1 to determine if it is ready for the next meeting and Charman is confident it will be.

“We have fertilised it, put out our winter grass, aerated it and taken advice from Sydney for anything else we should be considering,” he said.

“There is a lot of green grass out there and some shoots coming through some of the dead stuff already so we are confident.”

Charman said the loss of the Anzac meeting would hurt the club financially but it was a short-term pain that could have been worse if they went ahead and damaged the track further.

“Anzac Day is one of our calendar race meetings for the year,” Charman said.

“It’s where we get the ­opportunity to showcase the venue to the community.

“It does hurt us financially but if we had gone around and it had of impacted on our next TAB race meeting than it could have been even worse.”