With the conclusion of the final race on Cox Plate Day, ground staff were already attending to the Flemington course proper, initiating preparations ahead of the forecasted rain.
Flemington racecourse manager Liam O’Keeffe and his team worked through the night, ensuring the track was in excellent shape before Sunday’s rain event, which saw 53mm fall between late Saturday night and early Monday morning.
The successful execution of their plan meant the Flemington track was on the better side of slow for Tuesday morning’s ‘Breakfast With The Stars’ event, according to O’Keeffe.
Flemington had to accommodate the transferred Cox Plate meeting from Moonee Valley, which was undergoing reconstruction, in addition to its own four scheduled meetings during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
O’Keeffe admitted that Saturday was a fortunate day, with only light showers during the meeting, and the majority of the track maintenance completed before the heavy rain arrived.
“During the meeting we had 2mm of rainfall which came on top of 3mm before the meeting had started,” O’Keeffe commented. “Given we irrigated, we were probably on the softer side of a (good) 4 for the whole day.”
He elaborated, “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 how well the track had recovered from Saturday’s busy nine-race Cox Plate program.
The track was mowed to four inches on Saturday night, with a plan to mow it again to four inches on Tuesday, applying fertiliser, and then again on Friday to approximately four-and-a-half inches.
“It leaves that little bit of length there and slows the drying down in case we get a warm day,” O’Keeffe explained. “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 that the rail would be maintained in the true position for Saturday’s Victoria Day Derby program.
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